Knight of the Sun
by Sayle
Summary: When Naruto finds himself in the land of Drangleic every time he sleeps, it doesn't take long to realise it is horribly real. Unsure of why he goes there and struggling to progress in a world where death is an inconvenience, it will be a test for his will to succeed the likes of which the Academy Student has never faced before. He cannot come through the crucible unchanged.
1. Arrival

Naruto threw himself backwards onto his bed with a loud huff, arms folded behind his head. "Stupid Academy," he muttered, turning his head to the side slightly. He had failed his Graduation Exam again, and he knew that it wasn't expected that students were meant to pass the first time, or even the second, but...he huffed again, stretching out. It still hurt. He wasn't book-smart like Sakura-chan, or good at taijutsu like that jerk Sasuke. But he was still really good at the practical stuff!

...wasn't he? So what if he couldn't do a bunshin. It was just a fake! But Iruka-sensei said it was important, and Iruka-sensei never lied to him. The aspiring ninja-to-be almost yowled in frustration, grabbing the sides of his pillow from above him on the bed and ramming it down onto his face to muffle the noise. This sucked! His kawarimi was fine, and Iruka-sensei always said his henge was really good. So why couldn't he do a stupid bunshin? This was going to be his final year, and if he couldn't...

Naruto pushed the pillow off of his face with a sigh, letting it fall onto the floor. Then his expression firmed. He couldn't let it get to him. He'd just have to train twice as hard, and he'd show everybody what an amazing ninja he could be! "Yeah!" he shouted, jumping out of bed and heading for the door. "I'm going to be the greatest ninja ever!"

~Knight of the Sun~

Some hours later, a thoroughly exhausted Naruto pushed his door shut and stumbled over to the bed. "So tired," he moaned piteously, flopping face first onto the mattress. His whole body seemed heavy, and all the training hadn't helped his bunshin get better at all. Maybe he'd ask Iruka-sensei for some tips...his thoughts trailed off into an indistinct fog, and within minutes the young boy was snoring.

~Knight of the Sun~

* * *

He woke feeling the warmth of a fire on his face, and the coarse grit of ash and dirt beneath his side. The boy blearily lifted a sleeve to run across his eyes, then froze when he realised that he wasn't in his bed. "Ayah!" he screamed, flailing upright. "Where am I?" he yelled, looking around. He could hear something strange, some kind of repeating roar in the distance, and there were barely any trees.

"Are you the next monarch?" asked a woman's voice, and Naruto jumped back in surprise. But his heel caught the ring of stones around the fire, and the orange-clad boy fell back onto the grass.

"Ow…" he muttered, rubbing his head and propping himself up with the other arm. Then he froze again, looking up at the woman who had spoken. She was standing just outside the ring of fire, watching him with her one visible eye, the other covered by a curtain of red hair and the dipped green of her hooded cloak. Naruto sat up a little more warily, pushing himself up the extra inches that he needed to pull his feet back over the edge of the ring of stones and stand up. She wasn't dressed like a ninja…"Are you a ninja?" he blurted. "Where am I?"

"You are in the kingdom of Drangleic," she replied, a kind of passive interest to her voice. "Did you come here for a cure? Only the cursed come to this place. Are you here to be the next monarch?"

"Drangleic," Naruto repeated dumbly. "W-where is that? Where is Konoha? Why am I here?!" He became increasingly panicked, hands fisting into his blonde hair. "I-I've been kidnapped! Who are you? What is that noise?" He panted wildly, eyes wide as he looked around. Nothing looked familiar.

"You mean the waves?" she asked, again with a calm tone of voice. "This is Majula. Do you seek an end to your curse?"

"The...waves?" Naruto repeated hesitantly, and his eyes settled on the horizon. Looking hesitantly at the woman, he sidled around the stone ring and came to the edge of the cliff, getting down on hands and knees to look over the sheer edge. Beneath him, the surf crashed into the slim beach and the bare rock, the waves seeming to undulate from the sea and onto the shore. "Wow…" he breathed. He'd never imagined so much water. He looked up suddenly from the edge, but the woman hadn't moved from her spot, and so he looked back down for a long minute in silent wonder.

But the worry started creeping in again, and he looked up. "Where am I?" he asked, trembling a little. He was afraid. "Where's Konoha?" He paused a moment, looking around as if it would show itself. He stood abruptly back from the edge, almost shaking. "Where am I?" he repeated. "Which way to Konoha? I-I have to go back. Iruka-sensei will get mad if I don't go to the Academy!"

Despite his desperation, the woman just watched him. "I do not know," she said simply. "Can you not remember?"

Naruto took a shaking step back, then another, looking at her with frightened horror. Then he ran. He ran through a dark corridor and a wet cave, feet slapping against the ground, until there was a light ahead. He burst out into the open again, panting more from panic than exhaustion, and looked around frantically. There was a shallow stream running by him, and there were trees all around the path. That was good, right? There were lots of trees around Konoha. He swallowed thickly. They weren't like any trees he'd ever seen.

Then his breath caught, spotting somebody moving down the path. "Hey!" he shouted, waving and running towards them. "Hey! Do you know the way to Konoha?" The slumped man stopped walking and turned with plodding steps, and Naruto shrieked in shock. "D-dead person!" he accused, pointing a finger. "Stay away!"

The corpse ignored him, starting to stamp towards him with a rusty knife in hand. The mottled and dark green flesh looked less like decay and more like it was withering away, but all Naruto saw was a very not human thing shambling towards him. That was all the warning he needed. He stepped back, then turned around and ran for it, wailing all the way. He ran back into the cave, and across the rickety bridge, and through the dark tunnel, and he didn't look back until he was along the cliffside again. He shot a look behind his shoulder to make sure it hadn't chased him all the way, and his sandalled foot only landed half on the ground. Before he knew it he was tilting forward, arms windmilling around, and saw he was really, _really_ far up.

Then he wasn't.

~Knight of the Sun~

Naruto woke with a sharp gasp, almost hurling himself face first into the bonfire. Then he was scrambling back until his butt hit the ring of stones, looking around wildly. "I-I-I-" he stammered, hyperventilating.

"You fell off the cliff," the woman observed, and there was no condemnation in her voice. Only the same passive tone she had used before. "There are worse ways to die."

"I died?" Naruto squeaked, patting himself. But his frantic hands found nothing wrong, not even tears in his orange jumpsuit. He squinted up at the woman. "Did...did you rescue me?"

"You returned to the fire," she said simply. Naruto found his eyes drawn back the bonfire, and he looked at it for the first time. Really looked at it. The sword embedded in the was strange, but his breath caught as he saw the bones that made up the kindling. He cringed away from it, stumbling up and over the ring of stones to put some distance between him and the bones.

"What's happening?" he asked, feeling choked. "I want to go home." He sat down on the grass and pulled his knees up, wrapping his arms around them and pressing his face down into his legs. He wanted to go home. To jiji...to Iruka-sensei...he didn't realise he was snuffling until a hand lay itself on his shoulder.

"Can you remember your name?" she asked.

"Uzumaki Naruto," he replied, voice subdued. His voice threatened to hiccup, and he dragged a sleeve over his nose before wrapping his arm back around his calves.

"You are something different," she said softly. "You cannot become the next monarch." Her tone had changed. "You are something different," she repeated, almost thoughtfully. "Something new." There was a pause. "Or something old…"

"I want to go home," he whispered.

Her hand removed itself from his shoulder, and Naruto scarcely felt a feather trace down his whiskered cheek before his emotional exhaustion seemed to pile up into a mountain, pressing him down. "Sleep now," the woman said, and Naruto's eyes seemed twice as heavy. He slowly sagged down against her legs, and he closed his eyes. The woman in green stood silently by the fire as he drifted off against her, and a few minutes later she looked down to regard his fading imprint in the grass. "I am sorry, Uzumaki Naruto," she said after a long moment. "I think I will see you again soon."

~Knight of the Sun~

* * *

Naruto hurtled upright in his bed, the covers tangled up around his feet. One fall off the side of the bed later, he was picking himself off the floor while rubbing at the side of his head. "What a crazy dream, -ttebayo," he muttered. "Crazy ladies and dead people." On cue, his stomach rumbled, and he wrinkled his nose. He'd probably drank some milk going bad, or something. Looking out the window at the growing light of the sun, he patted his stomach. That dream had felt real, and a bit scary, and he still felt a bit weird about it. Checking Gama-chan, he pouted. He barely had enough for a single bowl at Ichiraku's, but...he kinda wanted some ramen there right now. "Iruka-sensei will be really mad if he catches me there for breakfast…"

Ramen, or Iruka-sensei. Iruka-sensei, or ramen.

Ramen.

~Knight of the Sun~

Naruto groaned as he climbed into bed. Iruka-sensei always seemed to know where he was, even before the Academy started! He hadn't brought it up again after telling him off about it, but whenever Iruka looked at him for the rest of the day he got all squirmy and guilty inside. It was worse than make-up tests! Then they'd had to do lots of boring chakra exercises that were all really hard and just made his head hurt. Stupid Academy. He wriggled a little on top of the bed, and yawned. He should really get into his pajamas but he was getting really...tired…

He opened his eyes to a Majula sky.


	2. Companion

"Nobody does anything," Naruto muttered, poking at the dry bones of the bonfire with a long stick. "They've all given up."

"They cannot remember," the woman said, sitting on her rock. Naruto had never seen her eat. He had never seen anybody eat. Or sleep. She wouldn't even tell him her name. "The curse strips away memory and humanity, until nothing but a hollow is left. It takes a strong will to resist."

Naruto shivered at the idea, huddling in on himself a little more. This was his third time. His third night. "Who are you waiting for?" he asked quietly. "This monarch guy."

"They will end the curse," she replied simply. "They will gather the Great Souls and link the Fire. All this will begin again."

The boy sighed, dropping the stick and just hugging his legs. "So everybody will get better?" He looked to the side, where the slowly decaying blacksmith sat by the locked gate to his smithy. Everything was still. It didn't change. Everybody sat in the same places, waiting and despairing. The most exciting thing in the town was the talking cat in one of the houses. Naruto shivered. She creeped him out. She said weird stuff about him, said he was a hungry thief. Then there were those creepy statues by the pit, which were nearly as bad. It felt like they were watching him.

"The curse will end," the woman in green agreed.

Naruto absorbed that for a long while, and when he went to sleep the little crease between his brows didn't fade until he did.

Shanalotte regarded the empty space he left pensively, as she always did. What could die without losing its soul?

~Knight of the Sun~

* * *

Naruto picked at the ramen, and Iruka watched him worriedly. It wasn't like him to just toy with his second bowl. The boy had been increasingly distracted at the Academy, his usual energy and frustration seeming to bleed away into a general worry. "Eh...Naruto," he began slowly. "You've been getting enough sleep, right?"

The boy looked up sharply, as if he'd forgotten Iruka was there. That look didn't belong on Naruto's face, and Iruka almost shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Then the blonde-haired boy smiled, and most of his worry washed away. "Eheh...I've been training pretty hard," he admitted, rubbing at the back of his head. "I've gotta train if I'm going to be an amazing ninja!"

"You have to sleep too, Naruto," Iruka scolded, but couldn't deny he felt better as Naruto started attacking the ramen in his bowl, devouring it with his usual manic energy. "It's important."

"I will, Iruka-sensei," Naruto beamed, finishing his bowl and slumping back with a satisfied sigh. Iruka smiled back. Naruto was Naruto. What was he worried about?

~Knight of the Sun~

* * *

"I was a great knight, once," the armored man said heavily, his tattered white cloak showing his age more than the tone of his voice could. Naruto listened, enthralled by the first person except the woman in green who could seem to keep his focus. "Until the curse. One of the best of Mirrah's knights...now nothing."

Naruto shifted uncomfortably. The stream ran fast along the other side of the bonfire where he sat, and the boy occasionally shot uneasy looks towards the shuffling hollows on the other side. But they seemed reluctant to cross the river, and even his basic training from the Academy had let him sneak past to the bonfire. Where he had found this man. "So why are you here?" he asked.

"I thought I could end the curse," the knight said, voice rueful. "Unite the great souls. Undo this suffering." He opened a gauntleted hand, and Naruto watched in awe as white light blossomed there. "But with every death...my skills dim. I fought two of the great Iron Knights, once. Now even one is a struggle." He clenched his fist, and his shoulders straightened slightly as the souls sank through his armor and into his body. "I am slipping away. Soon, I will be no different from the hollows you see there."

"But...that's not too soon, right?" Naruto asked, trying to cheer him up. "You can beat those knights with some help!" The orange-clad boy jabbed a thumb into his chest. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto! I'm gonna help you beat this curse!"

The knight was silent, then a rusty chuckle reverberated from within his helmet. "It would be...good to have a companion." The knight lifted a hand to his chain mailed chest, practically the only part of his body which wasn't concealed by an impressive array of interlocking plate armor. "I helped too, once. When I first knew I could not defeat the curse, I thought perhaps I could aid others to accomplish what I had failed. Now...not even that. Yes. Yes, I will fight on. A little longer."

Naruto grinned as the knight lifted himself up from his place by the bonfire and walked to the edge of the stream. Then he blinked. "Wait a second!" Naruto shouted. "What's your name?"

The knight paused a long moment. "Roland," he said slowly, as though he hadn't thought about it for a long while. "Sir Roland of Mirrah." Then he drew his sword in a rasp of steel, and waded out into the stream properly. The sound and closeness immediately attracted the hollows, and they began a slouched run towards the armored man, their long-rusted weapons clutched in closed fists.

Naruto waded through the water after Roland, watching in awe as the knight disarmed charging hollows with a flick of his sword and turned them into dust with a single stroke. It wasn't like any sword Naruto had ever seen: it wasn't curved, and it had these long bars just above the hilt. The boy frowned for a moment, a distant memory of something short and straight just out of reach. Maybe he had seen something like it? He finished crossing the stream, wishing his feet weren't wet, and jumped in surprise as the knight turned around and pressed a short dagger to his chest.

"Here," he said, and Naruto fumbled a little with the weapon before getting a good grip on it. It felt lighter than a kunai, and it only had two edges. He didn't think he could throw it. "There are two hollows across that fallen log," the knight said. "Bow and sword. Go."

"Go?" Naruto asked, squinting up at him. "Go what?"

"Destroy them," the knight said, as though it were obvious. Naruto blanched a little, thinking of getting close to one of the hollows. Then he tightened his grip on the dagger. What was he thinking? He was Uzumaki Naruto, and he was going to become Hokage! Ninja didn't get scared, and he didn't either! He took a deep breath.

"Right!" he nodded resolutely. Then the boy took a deep breath, and stepped out from behind the rocks. The two hollows noticed him right away, and he plastered himself back against the rocks with a yelp as an arrow whizzed through the air where he had just been standing. Roland turned his head to look down with a shift of metal.

"Watch the bow," he said. "When it is about to shoot, jump to the side."

Naruto swallowed, then nodded again. Hesitantly, he stepped out again. This time he kept his eyes fixed on the hollow with the bow, which was already preparing another arrow. He could feel his heart beat quicker as it drew the string, pointing it at him - he dived forward as the arrow shot over his head, then scrambled up to the fallen log that spanned the stream. Adrenaline pounded through him, and the orange-clad boy hopped up onto the log with a war-cry.

The hollow with the sword was waiting on the other end, clumsily pulling its sword back. Naruto jumped over it as the sword whistled through the space he had just occupied, landing in a triangle stance behind it. Then he surged up from the crouch and dodged another arrow, sandalled feet slapping against the rockface that narrowed the path, then boosting off it towards the hollow with the bow.

"Hyah!" He bowled the hollow over, the bow snapping as Naruto's weight bore both of them down the ground. The dagger punched through the old and worn breastplate the hollow wore as armor in a screech of steel, and it convulsed for a moment. As it moved its arm to try and grab the crude shortsword that was still sheathed at its waist, Naruto pulled back the dagger and plunged it down again. And again. And again.

Then it was over, and the hollow suddenly burst into dark smoke, a white clump of light flying up from around where it had just been lying and sinking into Naruto's belly. The sudden loss of the body beneath him had the boy yelping in surprise and falling forward, putting out a hand to steady himself. He'd done it! There was a clink of armor behind him and he clumsily went prone, the longsword whooshing over his head so closely he could feel it ruffle the back of his hair. Rolling to the side and onto his back, Naruto looked up with wide eyes as the hollow turned the swing of its sword back towards him.

There was a flash of light and a mighty bang, and the sword went flying. The hollow sank to its knees, and simply blew away into smoke and dust, its armor clattering to the ground. Naruto panted wildly, realising just how close he had come to getting killed by it.

"Not bad," Roland said. Naruto looked up at the knight as he descended from the log and onto the ground. "For a start."

Naruto whimpered.

~Knight of the Sun~

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen was concerned. Umino Iruka, his teacher, had first brought the issue to his attention. At first, the man had thought that Naruto had merely been depressed by his lack of progress in the Academy, but it had developed into a consistent change in attitude over the last week. Not only was he worried as Hokage about the stability of Konoha's jinchuuriki, but he would be lying if he wasn't fond of Naruto as well. He really did want for the boy to be happy.

His hands sought the translucent orb in his top drawer, which he carefully placed on a small cushion. The orb allowed him to see practically anything within the boundaries and immediate surroundings of Konoha, provided he knew where to look, much like Tobirama-sensei's and Minato's sensing abilities. Pushing his chakra into the artifact, he swiftly drew its gaze towards Naruto's unmistakeable chakra.

The image appeared in a wash of color. As expected, Naruto was in his apartment, but Sarutobi was surprised to see that of all things he seemed to be practicing kenjutsu, a crude stick in his hands. The Professor in him could already point out flaws, sure signs of self-teaching. But there was a certain regimentation to it that suggested it wouldn't be a totally ineffective fighting style. Hm. Maybe he could give him some scrolls on kenjutsu? Perhaps Naruto's focus was simply elsewhere. He'd keep a close eye, but things didn't seem too dire.

In his apartment, Naruto let out a war cry as he ducked under an imaginary swing and brought his stick sword around. He was Uzumaki Naruto, and he never gave up!


	3. Sunlight

After his first and almost lethal encounter with fighting hollows, Naruto stuck behind Roland from there on out. Wherever they went, there seemed to lots of monsters, and almost all of them seemed to focus right on the armored knight. He probably looked pretty scary to them, after all. Then Naruto would dash in behind them and stab! stab! stab! At first he was still a little jittery, but it wasn't like they were really people. They didn't get hurt or bleed. They just kind of slouched or staggered when he stabbed them, then turned into dust when he hit them enough. It was actually getting a little exciting, in a weird way.

"Ah...Roland-san?" Naruto asked tentatively, trailing after the knight as they carefully made their way up a massive fallen tree towards the battlements. "What was that other person before? The one sitting by the tree?"

"The one with the same armor as me?" Roland replied, divining the true nature of the question. Naruto nodded. "That was a knight of Heide. Or so I was told, based on my armor. It happens sometimes, when you lose the fight against hollowing. You just sit down and…" he paused a moment to fling a throwing knife down at a hollow which had taken notice of them, and it silently expired. "Don't get up," he finished, the gas-light of the hollow's soul rushing up to him. "I got my armor from one."

"Oh," Naruto said quietly, a little crease between his brows. "So how did you get the armor?"

"I killed it," Roland said easily, and paid little attention to Naruto's look of shock. "Heide is so old that most people don't even know the name, lad. You come across somebody wearing armor like that just sitting there, you can count on them being hollow. He didn't even react until I took my mace to him, and that's when you know a hollow is as old as the curse. They don't notice anything."

"Oh," Naruto repeated, not sure how he felt about that. He didn't know what a mace was either, and was about to ask when they reached the top of the branch and hopped onto the battlements proper. One hollow with a halberd turned towards them and began to half-slouch half-run in their direction.

"Off you go, lad," Roland said, and Naruto swallowed. Clutching his dagger in both hands, he stepped forward a few paces before noticing a pile of stone and rubble from the crumbling crenellations. He could use a kawarimi to switch himself with it just as the hollow came past and get it from behind. Just as the hollow passed it, he made the handsigns past the hilt of the dagger and focused on switching with the rubble.

Nothing happened. Naruto blinked in confusion, then yelped and jumped to the side as the hollow tried to bisect him with a downward strike of its halberd. By the time it was pulling the weighted weapon up to a position where it could use it again, he was already on it and stabbing. The hollow dissolved to that weird dust and a ball of light darted up into his stomach.

"You shouldn't wait until the last second," Roland said, coming up behind him. "With a long reach like that you should have just rolled into his guard."

"My jutsu didn't work!" Naruto defended, looking at his hands in confusion.

"Your what?" Roland asked, the a shadow fell over them with a whoosh of wings and passing air. The massive bird hurtled overhead, carrying something in its talons.

"Wow!" Naruto gasped, gaping after the huge eagle. Roland didn't share his enthusiasm, cursing and pulling him flush with the inner wall of the battlements. There was a strange whistling noise as the bird flew overhead, then an almighty crash as something landed on the wooden panels that a hollow had been standing behind. The hollow in question vanished in a puff of green dust and smoke, crushed beneath the weight of the massive armored...thing.

Naruto gaped at the thing as it turned towards them and raised its shield in a clank of metal. It was floating! Then it suddenly hurtled forward with a massive greatsword trailing behind it, gliding towards them with its shield up. As it came close the greatsword suddenly whipped up, and Naruto hurled himself into the open with a cry of surprise at its speed, the dark metal of its greatsword hurling up sparks from the stone floor. Roland had rolled at a right angle with the wall in a clatter of armor, leaving them on opposite sides of the monster.

Then, it did what no other monster had done before. It attacked Naruto first. The boy found himself yelping as he ducked under a slash from the greatsword that would have taken his head off, then diving back to avoid a smash of its huge shield. Rolling up from his dive to put himself even further out, Naruto slipped into a ready stance, dagger held like a kunai. He tensed himself to fight this thing when it finished a whirl to attack where he had dove out of the way, before he had got that extra distance…

Then it ignored every instinct the boy had and somehow crossed the space between them mid-stroke, gliding on thin air to whip its greatsword across and hit him. It felt like he had been struck by a huge hammer, and as the monster finished its stroke Naruto fell to the ground, his legs refusing to work. He could see them, too, lying over there…

He just had time to see the monster turn around with its sword glowing blue and stab Roland in the chest before his vision dimmed round the edges and darkness claimed him.

~Knight of the Sun~

When he woke at the bonfire, he just had time to see Roland coalesce from the same green dust that the monsters turned into, the knight sitting opposite him. Naruto patted at his waist uncertainly, the bottom hem of his orange top separated from the rest of it by a long rent through the fabric. It looked more like a belt now, and he swallowed thickly. Had...had that thing really cut right through him?

"We...we aren't going back, right?" Naruto asked, a bit frightened at the idea of facing that thing again. How could they even beat that?

"Pursuer," Roland replied. "I had heard tale of them, but never seen one. No. We will not go back. Not even for the souls." The knight was inspecting a break in the chainmail over his chest, and Naruto thought he could see a glimpse of green, like the hollows had. He looked up, then paused. "You look human," he observed, voice possessing a somewhat confused note.

"I am human," Naruto defended, a little put out by the accusation.

"Death is the first step of hollowing," Roland said. "Where did you come from?"

"Konoha," Naruto replied, not quite looking the way the knight seemed to be looking at him. He couldn't see past the slit visor of the greathelm, but there was a sort of odd tension in Roland's shoulders.

"I had hoped to investigate a strange gate," Roland said, seemingly changing the topic. Naruto relaxed slightly. "But that is too dangerous, now. Loss for no gain." The knight sighed, a thready noise that exited his helmet with a sound more like a weak whistle of wind than something produced by a human throat. "At least the sun shines." He turned his head upwards, and Naruto hesitantly followed his gaze to look at the warm orange light shining over the trees.

"The sun?" Naruto hesitantly repeated. Roland turned back to him, and leaned forward. Naruto scooted back.

"Let me tell you about the Sun," the knight said, and Naruto swallowed at the solemnity in his voice. This was going to be Hokage-jiji and the Will of Fire all over again...


	4. Seal

That morning, Naruto struggled out of bed to go to the Academy, but not before checking his orange jumpsuit. He couldn't find any damage, and he sighed in relief. It was just a dream...but it had felt real. It had hurt. He shivered at the memory of that sword cutting him in two. Out of the dream, the hollows suddenly seemed a lot more horrifying than before. It was more like a nightmare. One he couldn't use chakra in.

Which was why he did something he'd never done after his first year in the Academy. He raised his hand in class. Iruka did a doubletake as he saw it, blinking in surprise. "Eh, Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked, feeling pretty uncomfortable at the sudden attention of everybody else in the class. "What do you do if you can't use your chakra?"

"Naruto," Iruka said patiently. "We were discussing the history of Fire Country." Specifically, the major towns which were the source of most civilian commissioned shinobi income. The up-and-coming rich were more than happy to pay for permanent shinobi bodyguards, even when nobody was interested in them.

Naruto squirmed.

Iruka sighed. "If you can't use your chakra," he said, in the long-suffering tones of a teacher who tried to answer his students' questions regardless, "then you do your best to use taijutsu and your environment." He paused a moment, casting an eye around the room. "That's why taijutsu is _so important_," he emphasised, and Naruto saw Nara Shikamaru startle a little out of the corner of his vision.

Naruto sighed silently and stared down at the tabletop. He was already training his taijutsu a lot. He'd hoped Iruka-sensei would have some other idea, like some cool ninja technique that didn't use chakra. The blonde-haired boy propped his chin up with one hand, eyes glazing over as he looked at the board and just let Iruka-sensei's voice wash over him. He kind of didn't want to go to sleep tonight...

He didn't notice the odd, concerned look his teacher gave him.

~Knight of the Sun~

* * *

Naruto woke up by the bonfire, as he usually did, a gasp and flailing of arms signalling his transition from being slumped against the wall of his apartment to sitting on the hard ground. "Aw man," Naruto groaned, squinting into the firelight. "I was trying to stay awake, -ttebayo." He was sure that he'd made it most of the way through the night, too. Then he spotted Roland standing on the other side of the fire, his white cloak shifting slightly as the bonfire stirred the air around them. The knight's greathelm turned just enough to spot him, and Naruto sat up, then froze as he felt something weird around his waist.

The boy's hands sought out his jumpsuit, and grimaced to find the damage there. "I would suggest armor," Roland commented from where he stood, turning around properly. "But this is not Mirrah. There is no armorer to make it for you." The knight paused a moment. "At least not that I know of," he amended.

"Heh," Naruto chuckled weakly, rubbing at the back of his head. The attention from the man made him feel a bit weird, but it was nice too. "I'm going to be a ninja! I've got to be super fast if I'm going to be Hokage!"

"Hm." Roland didn't pry, just observing the boy across the fire for a long moment. He had a surprising amount of speed, for a child. More surprising still was the way he faded when he slept, then reappeared a few hours later. "I have tried to recall what I could. There is supposedly a great demon in an iron castle, though it is a treacherous journey. We will have to pass through Majula, and buy you a blade." He held up a familiar dagger. "You left this when you…" the knight paused, almost delicately. "Faded."

"Eheh...I don't have any money," Naruto admitted sheepishly. Gama-chan was already empty from his ramen, and he wasn't due to get the next of his living allowance for a few days.

"We will collect some," the knight promised, tossing the knife over. Naruto caught it against his chest, managing to slap the hilt against the thick orange padding of his jumpsuit. It hadn't dropped quite the way he'd expected a kunai to if somebody had thrown it to him, and his cheeks burned with embarrassment at the seemingly clumsy grab. The knight didn't seem to notice. "Majula is scarcely ten minutes away," Roland said. "The keep was built to watch over the sea, it seems. You lead the way."

Naruto chanced a glance out across the stream. In the time he had been gone, a few more hollows had filtered out from the surrounding woodland and onto the path again. Then his shoulders firmed up, and he shifted his grip on the knife. They weren't nearly as scary as that huge Pursuer thing, and they were pretty slow. He could beat them no problem, or his name wasn't Uzumaki Naruto!

Perhaps in another time, Roland would have watched in amusement as his new companion charged across the stream and leapt on the nearest hollow with a warcry. Here, the knight simply began crossing the stream, a spark of interest maintaining his focus in the face of the curse. Who was this child? So he watched as the boy stabbed and slashed with the dagger, the blue-white gaslight of the hollows' souls darting up to be absorbed.

Less than thirty seconds later, Naruto was breathing heavily and looking around for more of the monsters, his eyes bright with exhilaration. That was way more exciting than a spar at the Academy, especially when he was sure they couldn't catch him! Still a bit scary, but in a good way.

"That will do," the knight observed as he passed the boy, walking up the path towards the cave that would lead them out. Naruto grinned at the praise, and trailed after him. The journey back slowed somewhat in the low light of the cave and the dark passageway beyond, but it wasn't long before they emerged back into the sunlight of Majula, the sound of the waves crashing against the bare rock of the cliff face below reminding Naruto of the first time he had heard of them.

"There is an merchant that sells arms and armor here," Roland said. "You should have enough for a shortsword."

"I thought we were getting money?" Naruto asked, a bit confused.

"You have souls," the knight pointed out. "At least a few hundred, from the hollows before."

"I...don't know how to get them out?" Naruto said slowly, sounding more like he was asking a question than saying so. They came up the path and into Majula proper, the woman in green turning her head slightly to watch them from the bonfire.

Then they stopped near the center of the town. "It should be instinctive," Roland said, having apparently struggled for a reply. "But you do not seem...normal. Try reaching within you." The knight held out a hand, palm up, and a white light coalesced in the half-cage of his fingers.

Naruto stuck out his hand the same way, face scrunching up. Nothing happened. After his face began to turn red from effort, Roland sighed that thready sigh of his, the whistle of wind through the trees. Naruto flushed in embarrassment. "I've never done this before!" he said defensively.

"You do absorb them," the knight said. "Put your hand to your skin first, perhaps. Over your heart, or belly. Souls…" he paused, Naruto already making an effort to tug up the thick fabric of his jumpsuit. "Feel different," Roland finished, attention drawn by just what had been revealed as the boy pulled up his top.

"W-what's that?" Naruto yelped, voice wobbling. His stomach covered in dark black writing, multi-spoked kanji around a central swirl, and it was glowing around the edges with a faint blue light. It looked like the glow that souls had, and Roland crouched down and compared the souls still clutched in his hand to the light of the strange design, only to curse and pull his hand away as the diffuse aura of the souls he was holding started to gravitate towards it.

"I don't know," the knight said slowly, extinguishing the souls he had manifested with a clench of his fist. He didn't want to risk his precious stockpile. "Do you?"

Naruto stared down at his belly like there it had a hissing snake on it, his face a little pale. "N-no," he stammered.

"It seems like some sort of…" Roland paused, a distant memory of the same blue light coming to him, a statue absorbing a fallen soul. "Soul catcher?"

"Why is it on me?" Naruto complained, but the faint trace of fear in his voice couldn't be completely masked by his indignation.

The knight had no reply.


	5. Soulcatching

"Again."

Naruto huffed in annoyance, scrubbing almost furiously at the back of his head. "They're slippery!" he protested, wiggling his fingers. "I can't hold onto them!"

"You can feel them," Roland replied, the knight leaning against the dirt embankment along the path. They were close enough to the castle near Majula to be able to attract some hollows of the soldiers that had once guarded it, but the fortifications themselves were very nearly out of sight, only the barest hint of gray wall through the trees. "If you can feel them, you can catch them."

The knight picked up a small rock, and sent it hurtling into the trees, where it bounced off of a tree trunk with a thunk. Naruto could almost immediately hear an agitated groan from a nearby hollow, one slowly getting up from where it had been lying on the ground, almost indistinguishable from the brown leaves and dark earth that covered the floor of the forest just off the path.

Naruto pursed his lower lip between his teeth for a moment, almost squinting in concentration as the hollow clumsily kicked up leaves in a slouching run towards them. It saw Naruto first, probably because of the bright orange of his clothing, and charged with its weapon raised. The curved and rusted blade made more of a heavy whoosh through the air than a fine whistle like a good quality sword, and the boy ducked under the swing easily. The hollow had completely overcommitted to the strike, and it seemed more confused than alarmed when it met no resistance. By then, Naruto had already slipped behind and stabbed it in the back. Five times.

When it dissolved into dust, he was ready. Blue light darted out met his palm and fingers, and Naruto tried to 'close' them around it. It just went right through his fingers, the diffuse ball slipping into the soul catcher on his belly. "It's too small, -ttebayo!" he complained. "I can't catch it!" He showed his splayed fingers to the knight. "It just slips through!"

"Maybe a bigger soul, then," Roland said speculatively, straightening up and turning back towards the passage that would lead them to Majula. "I know just the thing."

~Knight of the Sun~

Naruto wailed as he ducked under a swing of the massive sword, almost dropping off the edge of the crumbling masonry and into the ocean below. "Help!" he cried, lunging forward again the second he was on his knees to avoid the stone sword cutting him in two as it landed in a blow that shook dust from the cracks between the bricks of the path.

There was a crackle of light, and the massive suit of armor made a low noise more like a wounded bull than anything a man could produce. If he hadn't seen the padding between the joints, Naruto would have thought that nobody was inside it. The Old Knight turned towards Roland and where he stood at the edge of the platform, and Naruto leapt up onto its back. The carvings of the armor and the edges of the plate gave him just enough grip to hold on a the knight turned suddenly, trying to knock him off.

The second it started to try and turn the other way to try and hit him from the other side, Naruto hopped up onto its shoulders and sunk his dagger into the back of its massive helmet. The hollow stopped, then sank abruptly to its knees. Feeling the armor shift suddenly underneath him, Naruto yowled as the support of the hollow inside suddenly vanished, leaving him falling to earth on top of the now empty suit. He barely had time to cup his hands over his belly, facing outward.

His back hit the metal pile beneath him at an odd angle, a jutting curve of the cuirass jabbing into his hip, but as the blue light of the soul whipped around from under him to dive into his belly, Naruto focused everything on catching it. His palms prickled as the soul hit his skin, and he tightened his fingers around it. It bounced a few times in his improvised prison, then suddenly sank into his hands and vanished.

"Well?" Roland asked, stepping up to the pile of armor and the boy lying on top of it, his hands clutched over his belly like he had captured a butterfly in his hands.

Slowly, Naruto grinned. He could feel it inside him, like a little ember of warmth. He could feel how it made him feel just a bit more alive, more awake and aware. He could recall the way it felt between his fingers...he made a noise of shocked awe as light blossomed above his hand, the warmth of the soul concentrating on the skin of his palms.

"I got it!"

~Knight of the Sun~

"So where are we going, Roland-sensei?" Naruto asked, his grin still not entirely faded away, even with the soul gone and a shiny longsword in his hands. It looked a little big for somebody of his size, but it didn't feel too heavy. It was just a bit hard to use, and stuff being hard didn't mean you gave up! Whenever the knight wasn't looking, he made little swings and 'woosh' noises with his mouth.

"The Old Iron Keep," the knight replied, and Naruto started in surprise as the room they were in began to rotate, the way to the place where he had fought that huge knight closing and another one on the opposite side opening up. "It is the only place I know with certainty that there is a Great Soul."

"How long will it take to get there?" Naruto asked.

"Perhaps two, three hours at a good pace," Roland began. Naruto grinned. "But the way will swarm with hollows. Likely days."

Naruto stopped smiling.

~Knight of the Sun~

* * *

He 'woke' with a groan, his body stiff from where he had been sitting up against the wall. The morning light was just beginning to shine on his face from the window, and for a long moment he just blinked blearily into the light. Then he suddenly scrambled to yank up his jumpsuit, giving himself a few scratches with his fingernails as he pulled it up as fast as he could. There! The soul catcher was here, too! The blue light was fading rapidly, dying away until only stark black lines were left, and then they vanished too. He leapt up from where he sat, wincing at the protests of his stiff muscles, and grabbed some paper. Tongue out and brow furrowed in concentration, he clumsily mashed the end of the brush into a mostly-dry pot of ink, then paused while holding it above the paper. There had been...a spiral? Going...that way?

About a minute later, he stared down at the finished spiral. The rest of the paper was blank.

"Arg!" he shouted, pressing his hands to the sides of his head. "I can't remember it!"


	6. Faith

Naruto shivered a little as he held up the torch, the oil-soaked rag at the end burning merrily and casting a warm orange light around the two travellers. His sword was held to his hip by a crude length of leather that served as a belt, but it kept bouncing against his leg when he walked. This whole place was...awful. He shivered again. It was unnaturally dark, all the trees were dead, and there were things out there. Things way scarier than the hollows back at the keep, or even the huge knights.

He came up short as Roland stopped walking, a gauntleted hand held out to stop them from going any further. There was a bridge ahead, and Naruto squinted. The gentle rivers near Majula had given way to deep ravines and thin paths along the cliffs. "Is something there?" Naruto whispered, the dark seeming to creep in a little on the puddle of light around their feet. He_ really_ didn't like it here.

"Listen," the knight replied with a light rasp, and Naruto held the torch away from him a little to mute the crackle of the flame. Otherwise, the copse was completely silent. Then, just on the edge of hearing, he heard the clink of metal on metal. He held his breath, trying to catch it again. There was another clink, but this time to their right. "We're being hunted," Roland cursed, and the knight threw all pretense at stealth to the wind as he drew his sword in a ringing chime of silvered steel. "Get to the bridge," he urged, casting his attention about the dead trees around the path. "Quickly."

"Right!" Naruto nodded, expression firming in determination. He ran up ahead, the packed dirt of the path puffing up from the impact of his feet, torch waving back and forth to light the way ahead. Roland took up the rear in a clatter of plate, the rhythmic noise perversely calming as they came up on the bridge. The moment they were at the foot of the short stone arch, Roland knelt down on one knee, head bowed and closed fist pressed against his helmet, just over his forehead. The knight was muttering, and Naruto swallowed suddenly as he heard movement again. "They're coming," he squeaked, dropping the torch and clumsily drawing his new sword. Were those _chains_ he heard? His imagination ran wild, the darkness pressing in around the now much lower circle of light around them.

Then a monster came tramping up towards them, a thin thing nearly twice as tall as Roland was, covered in dark leather robes and carrying a coil of rope in its hand. Naruto swallowed, the seeming frailty of it just making it look more dangerous. "Roland-sensei!" he yelped urgently, trying to get some help, but the knight didn't move, still muttering. Naruto swallowed and took a step back, but then he stiffened his shoulders and firmed up his stance, bringing the tip of the sword up to eye-level while pointing at the oncoming enemy. "I'm not going to back off!" he shouted at it, shaking the tip of the sword threatening.

The hollow made a jump forward, arm whipping out. Naruto gasped and jolted back as the coil in its hand unfurled, the wickedly barbed tip of the whip tearing a rent along the top of his shoulder, the ragged edges of the fabric yanked up after it as it pulled the whip back. He cast a quick glance at the damage over the thick white collar of his jumpsuit, then leant back as the whip's tip unfurled with a snap, right into the space his head had just occupied. "Roland-sensei!"

"-the LORD OF SUNLIGHT!" Roland rose from his crouch in a step forward, the fist that had been pressed to his helm burning with a sudden glow, lightning arcing from the articulated plate of his gauntlets. It crackled a bright yellow-orange, and a heartbeat later the knight was holding a bolt of lightning as long as he was tall, a radiance that shone like the sun. Then he threw it like a javelin with a crash of thunder, the bolt stabbing past the hollow and twenty paces down the path they had come from. Naruto barely saw it illuminate the hulking bulk of something criss-crossed with chains before it struck, and the world flashed white.

When the light cleared, he just had time to see the knight cut the tall hollow in two from the waist up, the longsword crackling with the same power as the bolt he had just killed the monster down the path with. Naruto gaped. That was ninjutsu! He blinked furiously, clearing his sight, a task made easier by the wide pool of illumination now cast by Roland's sword. His breath caught as he saw about half a dozen hollows enter the circle and step towards the bridge they were on. "Naruto," the knight said, and the ninja-in-training startled. "Take the other end of the bridge."

"You have to teach me that!" Naruto gasped, reaching out to grab a part of the knight's tattered cloak with his free hand. Roland took a step back and used his arm to push Naruto's hand free.

"Later," the knight said, attention focused on the advancing hollows. "Now, take the other side."The boy swallowed and nodded, turning around to see three hollows already stepping onto the other edge. Firming his grip on the leather hilt of the sword, he took a moment to breathe, then charged at them with a loud yell. The first raised a rusted sword to hit him, the emaciated looking hollows staggering and flailing with whatever weapons they had. Naruto ducked under the swing, the passage of the blade ruffling his hair, and then he was in among them, spinning and slashing with loud battle cries.

As the hollows started to burst into smoke and dust, Naruto grinned. This was awesome!

~Knight of the Sun~

"This sucks," Naruto griped, looking at the tattered shoulder of his jumpsuit. Nothing they scavenged would fit him (like he wanted to wear what hollows were wearing, ew!), and it was starting to look ratty round the edges. He forlornly picked at the top of his upper arm, one of the cords that usually decorated it around the red spiral ripped off completely. He looked up at Roland, who was sitting close to the other side of the bonfire and soaking up the warmth. While the knight wasn't favouring any limbs, Naruto had heard the tell-tale rasping ting of the metal armor deflecting strikes while he had fought to hold the other side of the bridge. "You okay, Roland-sensei?"

"Naught that the bonfire will not fix," the knight said, not raising his helmeted head from where it sat, staring at the ground. "More dangerous than I thought."

Naruto frowned a little. "You mean this place?" he asked, looking outside the sheltered little...hut?...the bonfire was in. It looked more like some sort of cell, bars on the top of the dome where the smoke would rise out and everything.

The knight breathed. "Yes," he said.

Naruto waited a moment, then shifted uncomfortably. "So, uh…" He tried to contain himself. "Will you teach me that lightning stuff you did back there?" he blurted, unable to hide his eagerness. Being able to do that would be so amazing!

"I...suppose," Roland replied heavily. Naruto frowned.

"Eh, Roland-sensei," Naruto poked. "You okay?"

"Just tired," the knight said quietly. "Why do you call me that?"

"Call you what?" Naruto asked, squinting a little in confusion.

"Sensei," he said, shifting minutely. "That."

"Well…" Naruto trailed off, rubbing at the back of his head sheepishly. "You've been teaching me, right? So that makes you my sensei!"

The knight sat there in silence, and Naruto felt a cold weight settle in his belly. Had he been...wrong?

"I suppose so," Roland said with a raspy chuckle, and Naruto grinned happily. "...what do you know about faith?"

"Faith?" Naruto blinked. "Like...believing in something?"

The knight breathed. "Yes. Gods. Ideals."

"I guess…" Naruto thought about it. "I believe in...uh…" He stopped, thinking again. The knight didn't interrupt, the only other sound the muted crackle of the fire. Naruto sat there, looking a little stricken. He thought lots of stuff about people, but did he believe in anything?

"I believe in the Sun," Roland said tiredly, when Naruto said nothing. "That there is hope. Before that? Fidelity. Brotherhood." He paused, a rattling sigh. "Chivalry."

"Chivalry?" Naruto asked, remembering what 'fidelity' meant taking most of his focus. He hadn't even heard of that last one.

"Defend the weak," the knight murmured, sounding as though he wanted to go to sleep. "Protect the innocent. Be fair and just. Strive against evil." He sighed. "That is what is means to be a knight. As a knight should be. To be an heir of the sun." He shifted slightly, leaning closer to the fire. "I wish it was enough."

Naruto looked down the mixed ash and dirt they were sitting on, the crease between his brows suggesting intense thought. Those sounded like...good things. Things that were worth believing in. He looked up hesitantly. "Ah, Roland-sensei," he asked tentatively. "Um...can you...tell me more? About the sun?"

~Knight of the Sun~

* * *

Naruto jolted awake, and he was pulling up his pajamas before the adrenaline had began to fade. He silently listed the parts of the soul catcher on his belly, even as it began to fade, though it took longer than it had the morning before. Maybe because he had caught more souls in it? The second it was gone, he squeezed his eyes shut and blindly felt over to where he had left the brush and the paper. The moment he had the brush in the ink (it took a few tries), he opened his eyes and began to draw.

Roughly a minute later, he made a last unsure wiggle of the brush. It didn't look anything like what the soul catcher was like in his head when he thought of it, but as he looked it over it seemed better and better. There was the big spiral, the circle of writing around it, and the spokes leading out from it. That would probably be enough for Iruka-sensei to tell him what it was, right? Or Hokage-jiji?

He got dressed as quickly as he could and grabbed the paper in one hand, but paused a moment as the light from the window fell over him. The light of the sun was warm on his face, and as he squinted out into the morning sky, he thought it seemed so...ordinary. Then he thought of the horrible darkness in the places he'd been, the warm orange light of the sun over the waves at Majula, the way the bonfires seemed to be the only other warm things around. He thought about what it meant. Hope…

He ducked his head with a little smile, running a hand through his hair. "Praise the sun," he muttered, almost shyly, then dashed out the door.


	7. Discovery

Iruka generally didn't pay much attention to Naruto in class. While he did take care to try and get the boy's attention whenever it wandered, and he took his duty to make sure all his students learned from him seriously, getting Naruto to sit still, focus, and learn was like herding cats. He did his best, but he had other students too. Ones with the will to learn. So when Naruto appeared at the beginning of the day and tried to get his attention, he had put him off with the promise to look later. He'd entirely forgotten about it by the end of the day.

"Eh, Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked, and Iruka turned back in surprise. Naruto had...stayed after class? Then he caught sight of the paper rolled up in one hand, an increasingly impatient looking Naruto holding it out while he shifted from foot to foot in ill-concealed anticipation. Ah, that was right.

"You wanted me to look at this, didn't you?" Iruka asked as he took it, unrolling the paper carefully. He doubted Naruto would have done something to it, but the situation was undeniably strange. Better safe than sorry. The content of the paper quickly became apparent, and Iruka's brow furrowed, scratching at the scar over his nose with one finger as he pondered it.

"What is it, Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked, almost eagerly.

"Uh…" Iruka looked down at the paper. There was the swirl, and a sort-of fuzzy circle around it. Then the eight spokes coming out in little squiggles. "It's the sun?" he hazarded, rather unsure. "With the Uzushiogakure symbol?" Although to be honest most people just knew it as 'the thing on the flak jackets' nowadays. He looked up from the paper just in time to see Naruto's cheeks flush a faint shade of red. "Is that it?"

"Why are you asking me?" Naruto yelled, and Iruka winced as he realised he'd misconstrued just what the boy wanted. "I'm asking you!"

"Alright, alright," Iruka soothed, giving it another look. He supposed that if you squinted it could be some kind of sea-

"Naruto," he said slowly, a block of ice dropping in his gut. "Where did this come from?"

"Oh, um…" Naruto laughed nervously, not quite looking at him anymore. He must have seen the reaction. "Just...around."

"Where, Naruto?" Iruka repeated, a little more insistently. The boy raised his hands defensively, waving them back and forth to try and placate him.

"Just a dream!" he yelped, cowering. Iruka made a suspicious noise, but settled back. If it was a seal, and it came to him in a dream?

"Hey, Naruto," he said suddenly. "Mind if I hold on to this?" He rolled the paper up and gave it a little wave. "I'll do a bit of research and see if I can find out."

"Aha…" Naruto sighed in relief. "Yeah, that's okay Iruka-sensei." He headed towards the door, turning back and waving. "See you tomorrow!" Then he was gone, the faintly receding sound of his running footsteps following him. Iruka didn't even scold him for running in the corridors, a terrible fear pressing down on him. Was this the seal? Was something happening to it? The teacher looked at the paper in his hand. Either way, Naruto was acting strangely. He should tell the Hokage.

"Sorry, Naruto," he murmured. "I hope this isn't what I think it is." He opened the window to the classroom and hopped onto the ledge, then leapt out. He'd better hurry.

~Knight of the Sun~

Naruto sighed as he closed the door to the apartment, leaning back against it with his eyes closed. Maybe it had been stupid to hope that Iruka-sensei would know what it was right away. He'd acted all weird, though, so maybe he had an idea? Naruto laid a hand on his belly as he thought about it. He couldn't tell Iruka-sensei what happened, or he'd think he was crazy!

As he got up and towards the bedroom, he snagged a carton of milk from the table and drank it down. It wasn't ramen, but he just wasn't very hungry. His belly was doing all kind of strange things, flopping and tingling, and he didn't think it had anything to do with the soul catcher there. He was worried...he was worried that he'd never get a good night sleep again. He was worried…

Naruto sighed, wiping his mouth clean and discarding the empty carton. He was worried about Roland-sensei, too. He didn't want to go back, but was it weird that he wanted to? Lots of things could be happening when he wasn't there. There might be attacks. Roland-sensei was a pretty amazing knight, and he could do all those miracles, but Naruto had been helping a lot too, and that dark place was really, _really_ dangerous.

Chewing a little on his lower lip, Naruto eyed his bed. It wouldn't be easy to get to sleep early, but...maybe he should check? If everything was okay, he could probably go back to sleep again there, right? He sat down on the bed and rolled onto his side, sighing heavily as a deep lethargy seemed to settle over him like a heavy blanket. Oh, he could go to sleep whenever he wanted? That was pretty cool...and the sunlight felt nice…

He let out one last breath, then drifted away.

~Knight of the Sun~

* * *

He opened his eyes to the warm glow of a bonfire, and sat up from where he had been lying down. The warmth that he'd been feeling only a moment before was gone, replaced by the chill of the darkness that suffused the air in the dark, dead forest.

Roland wasn't there. Naruto jolted up onto his feet, but the knight was definitely nowhere in the sheltered hut. The iron barred gate they had closed to provide a small protection against wandering hollows was ajar, and Naruto felt a thrill of fear. Had they come in and attacked? Roland-sensei said that they didn't like the bonfires, that they wouldn't come unless you tried to run from a fight.

The gate swung open with a low clunk under the gentle pressure of Naruto's hand, and he felt his pulse quicken as he spotted his dagger and sword stabbed into the earth just outside. Did this mean the knight thought Naruto would come when he was gone? Was it a message? He didn't hesitate to snatch them up either way, and briefly wondered why his crude leather belt stayed but his weapons didn't. Maybe they were too big?

"Roland-sensei?" he called, peering into the darkness. "Are you here?" Then he fell silent, listening for a response. Hollows were kind of lazy, Naruto had found. You had to get their attention in a big way to get them to actually come to you, but you could make a lot of noise without that happening. He still didn't want to yell too much, though.

Then he heard something. It was faint, like a light twang, from a long way away. Then a...crash? Then another? It was hard to make out, especially over the light winds that occasionally picked up through the crevices and cracks that made the landscape so difficult. So he kept listening, worry building. About a minute later, he heard something new. Something closer. Something...by the bonfire?

He whirled around to find Roland stepping out from the hut the bonfire was sat in, using a hand to hold the side of the doorframe as he exited. Naruto stared, and then realisation crashed over him. "You died?" the boy said angrily, more than a little accusingly. "What did you do?"

"Looked ahead," the knight said shortly, favouring his side. "Preparing." The man straightened up in his armor, firming his shoulders. Naruto's eyes strayed to an ugly dent in the plate of the upper arm, an inverted cone. It was nearly invisible, the edges of the cloak sliding over it. But it was there.

"You said dying made it worse!" Naruto yelled, knuckles tightening around the hilt of his sword. He wanted to hit something! Then a sudden wash of cold that had nothing to do with the forbidding atmosphere of their surroundings hit him, like he'd dropped feet first into cold water. "How long have you been doing this?" Naruto whispered, staring in horror. Had he been going on ahead whenever he wasn't there? Getting hurt? Killed?

"Naruto," Roland said tiredly. He packed so much into that word, and Naruto felt his throat close up. It hadn't been just this once.

"Well you can't do it anymore," Naruto said thickly. "You're not allowed, okay?"

The knight was silent.

"Okay?" Naruto shouted, slashing his arm across. The knight heaved a sigh.

"Alright," he said heavily. "No more."

"Okay," Naruto agreed, relief only lifting some of the weight off of his shoulders. "You can't go and die anymore. I won't let you." He swallowed. "I'm going to stick with you. So get used to it, -ttebayo! I'm not going to give up!"

Roland laughed, and Naruto flinched at the sound. It had the same sort of huffing amusement the knight had, but there was an underlying rasp that went right down to the bones. "Alright," the knight repeated.

"Alright," Naruto said firmly, gripping his sword tightly. "This place isn't good for...anyone. Let's get out of here." The boy looked around briefly, shivering. This place...it made him feel afraid. Not because he was afraid of something but just...afraid. He clenched the hilt of his new sword so tightly the leather creaked in protest. This place was getting into his head. "Come on, Roland-sensei," he said, eyes burning with determination. "We're gonna get out of this place!"

~Knight of the Sun~

* * *

"We can't wake him up, Hokage-sama," the boar-masked ANBU said, rising from his crouch by the bed. "He doesn't seem to be under a genjutsu."

Sarutobi Hiruzen looked down on the sleeping boy, expression tight. This was worse than he had feared. The Shinigami's seal was writ across Naruto's belly, black lines stark against bare skin, and nothing from shaking him to dispelling genjutsu seemed to wake him up. Unless Naruto was molding chakra, it should be invisible. It wasn't. "Get him to the hospital," he ordered, voice brooking no disagreement. "Post a guard. Nobody enters that room. _Nobody_."

The boar ANBU nodded. Even if he were to take his orders to the strictest letter, the Hokage's emphasis left no doubt on how far they were permitted to go if anybody tried. Gently lifting the boy in both his arms, the operative left through the open window and vanished in shunshin. The Hokage cast an eye around the apartment for a moment, seeing if anything was out of place. "Crow," he said suddenly. In a heartbeat, one of his ANBU melted out from under a concealment genjutsu and was on one knee. "Assemble a fast team. Bring me Jiraiya of the Sannin." The Hokage looked down briefly, tone arctic. "Don't take no for an answer. Don't let him stall. Bring him. Now."


	8. Loss

The winding path along the cliff was pretty dangerous: Naruto could see why Roland might have ended up getting knocked off and falling down. Hollows with bows would shoot at them, but Roland just lifted his shield and they did no damage. The path was already relatively clear, though, probably because the knight had already been up this way. When a crumbling building of rock seemingly built into the cliffs became visible, the knight began to move much more slowly. Naruto guessed this where he had died earlier.

But instead of tracking round towards the wide steps that entered the area, the knight gently pulled him into a small side passage, most of it blocked off by rocks. Roland was moving so slowly at this point he was almost completely silent, and Naruto found himself unable to speak and risk breaking it. If they were trying to sneak through, there had to be a reason, right? The blond-haired boy looked at the pile of rubble in confusion. There was no way through. Looking at the knight, the only guidance he received was a short nod upwards. Naruto pressed his body flush against the rocks, and slowly climbed the short distance between where he stood and the apex of the rubble pile.

Right at the top, previously hidden from sight by his low height, there was a small crack that revealed the other side of the passage. Moving onwards it was relatively clear, but it joined another coming in from the right, where the big steps out front would lead. There was some dim firelight coming through, and Naruto craned his head as far along the side of the rubble as he could trying to get a look into the room. His breath caught, hands clenching in instinctive fear.

It was strewn with bones, and they all looked human. Piles of them in ankle-deep water, reaching higher than Naruto actually stood. His face turned a little green as he saw the skulls littered about, confirming his horrified suspicion. He could see discarded weapons, too. There was something in there that did this. Something that killed all these people. He looked back suddenly at Roland, who was just standing there and watching the entrance of the small passageway. Naruto swallowed slightly. Something that had killed Roland, too.

Letting out a quiet breath, he clambered down from the rocks. That was when the knight was alone, though. This time there were two of them. He drew his sword from the crude loop of leather that served as a harness, shifting his grip on it until it felt right. He was getting that light feeling again, like he was afraid and ready to explode from the inside out, to jump and leap and yell.

"Let's go, Roland-sensei," he whispered, and the knight bowed his head for a long moment. Then the armored man stepped out from the passage and made an experimental figure of eight with his sword. Naruto stepped up beside him, and looked up at his mentor. He looked up at what he imagined were the eyes behind the dark slit of that helmet, and nodded in determination. The knight didn't nod back, but he did turn his head ahead towards the main entrance.

They headed up the stairs together.

~Knight of the Sun~

Naruto surged up from his position lying on the ground with a huge gasp of air, hands patting frantically over the front of his body. Roland materialised by the fire a moment later, a new series of dents bashed into the plate of his armor. "What were those?!" Naruto shouted, adrenaline coursing through his body at the mere thought of them. They'd killed one of the huge skeleton things, but then some of the bones on the floor came together and turned into...things.

Naruto swallowed, his eyes and fingers tracing the wide punctures straight through the fabric of his jumpsuit, showing the flesh beneath. That had...hurt. That had really, really hurt. How could something cross the distance that fast? It was like a skeleton with a...wheel instead of a torso. He'd thought it might try to roll towards him, but it was unbelievably fast. He'd felt the impact more than the pain, the rotating wheel slamming a sequential series of bone wheel spokes up from his hips to throat. Then the pain had started. He hadn't been able to breathe. One of the big skeletons had...Naruto suddenly wrapped his arms around his legs. It had stabbed the pointy end of that huge scythe right through his chest when he was on the ground.

"At least one of them is dead, right?" Naruto asked weakly. That left only two of the big skeletons left. The knight didn't reply. "Roland-sensei?" That finally got a reaction, and Naruto was relieved to see the man shrug a little. The boy couldn't really blame him. He felt defeated too. "They beat us," Naruto told him seriously. "That sucks. But we're going to hit them again, and we're going to beat them this time. Those freaky skeleton wheels aren't going to get me again, dattebayo!" He slammed his fist into an open hand. "Come on, Roland-sensei! We're going to win!"

For a long moment Naruto was afraid that the knight wasn't going to get up, but then Roland moved to stand up. Naruto grinned. They were still in this. This time, they were going to win.

~Knight of the Sun~

Naruto sat quietly at the side of his mentor. How long had it been since he'd just gone to check up on Roland? It felt like it had been days...the boy yawned a little, the long stretch of fighting and running was beginning to wear on him. They'd managed to beat the skeletons, even if neither had come through it unscathed, and Naruto had hoped they'd be pretty close to the end of the journey by then.

He'd been wrong. It had only got worse from there. The hollows that he'd seen most of the time had been mostly person-shaped, but here they were all...twisted. There were huge monsters that looked like they'd been made rather than born. He didn't really want to know who might have done it.

Those monsters, those stitched together things with the huge curved hooks and those clinking chains...they had killed him, and he was more glad than ever that Roland had killed the one back in the dark place with lightning before it even got to him. The knight was too tired to teach Naruto how to do it, but he'd managed to get some sparks to appear. It was whenever he thought about how nothing was going to stop him, about how be believed that he could do it...that was when the sparks appeared. But it was hard to do, when he was worrying a lot about Roland-sensei. It was like thinking and feeling really hard, and Naruto had only ever been really good at the second one.

Then Naruto had found out that other things could do what Roland could do, except theirs was sickly and...dark. Naruto said, shivering at the thought of one of those horrible monsters throwing those balls of dark...stuff at him. He'd been hit and really badly hurt by one, before one of those massive hammer wielding ones had got him. It had been like cold was burrowing into his skin, trying to freeze him to death from the inside out, like it was trying to smother him in darkness. He'd managed to run back to Roland, and the knight had managed to get the one with the hammer, but each time it seemed like the man was getting more and more sluggish.

Then the floor had collapsed out from under them a few steps further, and dropped them in thick green smoke. It had been blinding, stinging Naruto's eyes, burning his throat. His skin felt like it had been blistering, and they couldn't get out of the tunnel they'd been dropped in...

When they woke up at the bonfire together, hiding in a little cave off the main path, the knight hadn't recognised him for over five minutes. Naruto shivered. This whole place was beginning to press down on him, suffocate him. Everything was dead, or dying, or some kind of hollowed monster. The sky was a sick gray, and everything in the valley seemed to stink. It was better than the darkness before. Barely. But more dangerous. "Maybe we should find another way," Naruto suggested, every inch of him hating the place.

"Hm?" Roland asked, turning his helm minutely towards the boy.

"The...things are too dangerous," Naruto said, thinking of the dark ball throwing things again. The big stitched together chain things were less dangerous, but just seemed to refuse to die. That about summed up everything in the valley. "There must be another way."

There was a long pause. "Another way where?" Roland asked.

"To this castle place!" Naruto exclaimed, throwing up his arms.

There was another long silence. "Are we going somewhere?" Roland asked.

Naruto felt a block of ice drop into his belly, and swallowed. "Y-yeah," he said, a little more quietly. "We're going to the castle, remember?"

"Oh," Roland said. "I...don't remember."

"That's fine," Naruto said thickly, his face feeling suddenly puffy. "You just have to think about it, okay?"

"What were we doing?" Roland asked, an almost plaintive note of confusion to his voice.

"We were going to get a soul from that castle," Naruto urged, fingers prickling with worry. The moments of distraction had never been this bad before. "Remember?"

"...no."

Naruto sat there in silence, just letting a numb feeling weigh down his limbs.

"Naruto," the knight said slowly, his voice regaining a note of clarity. "I think you should leave."

"I'm not leaving," Naruto retorted fiercely, surging up onto his feet. "You're going to be fine!" He pressed dirty palms to just under his eyes, rubbing them into his face. "You're going to be fine, okay! You just have to focus!"

"Naruto," Roland repeated, fingers searching for something around his neck. He drew a cord up from the seam beneath his helm, and Naruto looked away so he wouldn't have to see the glimpse of mottled green flesh. The golden disk of a medallion appeared, and the knight snapped the cord with a jerk of his hand. "Take this," he urged, the emblazoned symbol of the sun reflecting a warm light.

"I'm not-" Naruto began.

"Please," Roland said. The boy reluctantly reached out and took the medallion, feeling it radiate warmth into his palm, like metal left out in the sun.

"You want me to hold onto it for you?" Naruto asked, but his heart wasn't in it.

"Please," Roland said again, and Naruto's throat closed up. He closed his fingers tight as he could around the symbol that he'd been given, drawing it up to his chest. "Go back to…" the knight trailed off.

"Majula?" Naruto asked, eyes stinging. The dirt he'd smudged on his cheeks must have got in his eyes.

The knight said nothing more, staring blankly out into space. Naruto sat back down opposite him, and waited for the knight to shake it off. He had before. He was so tired. They both were.

~Knight of the Sun~

* * *

Naruto gasped awake. For a moment, he couldn't understand where he was. Then the smell of disinfectant hit him, the feeling of the unfamiliar bed under him. He...wasn't there. He wasn't there. _He wasn't there!_ "Roland-sensei!" he shouted, panic surging through every inch of his body. He had to get back. The knight wasn't better yet. He couldn't leave him alone. Naruto grit his teeth and rammed his head back into the pillow. Sleep. Sleep. He had to sleep.

The door opened, and somebody stepped in. Naruto squeezed his eyes shut as tight as he could, trying to find that tiredness that had hit him before, to get it to appear again, to make him go to sleep.

"Naruto." The boy gasped at the voice, eyes flying open. Jiji? The Hokage was standing beside his bed, and Naruto just stared up in shock.

"Ji...ji?" he asked, voice shaking a little.

The Hokage looked over him with searching eyes, looking over everything from the tension in the his body to the seemingly poleaxed expression on his face. Sarutobi sighed heavily, laying one of his age-spotted hands over Naruto's, ignoring the instinctive flinch. "Naruto," he said heavily. "Let me help you."

Then Naruto did something that the Hokage had never seen him do. He burst into tears.


	9. Aftermath

Sarutobi sat at his desk at the top of the Hokage tower, his pipe silently sending smoke up towards the ceiling. Very little of it passed his lips, however, the lit leaves in the pipe slowly burning away and filling the air with what to the aging Hokage was a pleasantly relaxing aroma. If the ANBU bodyguards thought differently, they were polite enough not to say so. His elbows were propped up on the desk and fingers interlaced into a bridge, his expression placid.

He hadn't touched any of the paper on his desk for over half an hour. Lacking context, a casual observer might have used the relaxed position, advanced age, and half-lidded eyes to come to the conclusion that the old man was thoroughly out of it, mind idly wandering through near-forgotten memories of older times.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Behind the age and thin frame, the mind of the Professor, the God of Shinobi, was hard at work. Battle awareness trained in a more brutal youth augmented an already fearsome intelligence, allowing the Sandaime to switch between lines of thought so rapidly that he might as well have been thinking three things at once, subconsciously linking facts to theory and conjecture to observation as he sieved the truth from the deluge of information presented to him.

Uzumaki Naruto. What an enigma the boy had become, so quickly. Simply because the boy was easy to predict did not mean that the Sandaime was not fond on him for the qualities the boy possessed. It did not mean his heart did not ache for the son of his successor. For the Hokage, that was easy to set aside. His heart had hardened from long loss and regrets. He bore his burdens. For Jiraiya...less so.

"You're late," the Professor said, not even looking towards his window where the shinobi was climbing in. "I called for you two days ago."

"I came in a quarter of the time it took the ANBU to find me," Jiraiya retorted. "Even without knowing what for. They wouldn't tell me." The Toad Sage crossed his arms. "What's this about, sensei? I can only think of a few things that would have you getting me here so fast. Is it Orochimaru, or…?" The man trailed off. The former was a sore point, and that was an understatement. The unspoken latter was a disaster.

"Uzumaki Naruto has been in a coma," Sarutobi said, unfolding his hands and removing his pipe, tapping the embers out on the desk as he spoke. "He was found two days ago after the academy brought to my attention a drawing he had made, and asked his teacher to identify it." Sarutobi waved a hand to a single sheet by the edge of the desk, upside town. Jiraiya moved over and picked it up, tilting his wrist to bare the other side.

"The seal," he observed tightly. There was no mistaking that swirl. It was a crude drawing, done by a child, but his mind filled in the blanks. The intricate symbols of the hakke fuuin, made by the dying breaths of a student he had considered like a son. "He shouldn't have been able to see it." The sannin examined the drawing a moment more before putting it down. "Do we know how he first saw it?"

"Whether he was molding chakra or not," Sarutobi said, stating the true question before continuing. "Possibly. But the seal remained visible during the coma, and Naruto-kun had a very interesting story when he woke a few hours ago."

Jiraiya blew out air between his teeth. "The Kyuubi?"

"No," the Sandaime replied. "He seems entirely unaware of the bijuu. He has been going to a strange land whenever he sleeps. One I am unfamiliar with, and with strange concepts. He was…" the Hokage paused a moment. "Distressed when he woke. One of his friends there had died. Or something near enough."

"You think these dreams are related?" Jiraiya asked, brow furrowing in a frown.

"He could not be woken," Sarutobi replied frankly. "All efforts failed. He first saw the seal in the dream, as well, then after when he woke. Although it faded afterwards, as it did when he emerged from the coma."

"You keep saying coma," the Toad Sage observed. "Not just asleep?"

There was a lengthy pause as Sarutobi regarded his student for a long moment, then opened one of the drawers of his desk and withdrew a medical report. "I had a Hyuuga medic assigned to him. The observations are...interesting." He offered the report, and Jiraiya took the slim folder and opened it, eyes skimming through. Then he paused, gaze returning back to the beginning.

"Minimal brain activity," the sannin read, frown deepening. "Chakra depletion…"

"The process rather than the condition, to be more specific," the Hokage elaborated. "He ceased producing chakra during his coma."

Jiraiya's head shot up. "That's impossible!" the Toad Sage protested. "You can't stop producing chakra! Not even civilians. Not even _plants_. The only time you stop producing chakra is when you're dead, and I should know."

"Yes, your senjutsu," Sarutobi agreed. "The fact remains."

Jiraiya made a disgruntled noise, and returned to the report. But his mind lingered, and it wasn't long before he interrupted his reading again. "Are you sure?" he asked. "Maybe the amount was too small to measure?"

"Possibly," Sarutobi conceded. "But doubtful. Neither I, the Hyuuga medic, or even the head of the hospital could sense anything. Chakra was being depleted. Maintaining the seal, most likely. Yet his brain activity was insufficient to do more than manage his bodily functions, let alone dream."

Jiraiya lifted his eyes from the report, most of the content degenerating into medical observations that were more Tsunade's forte. "You have a theory," he deduced, and was rewarded with a slight smile from his one-time teacher. "What is it?"

"Tell me, Jiraiya," the Sandaime said indulgently, lifting his pipe again and lighting it with a sealless katon jutsu. "What are the base components of chakra?"

"Spiritual and physical energy," the sage replied instantly. "Yin and yang." He paused a long moment. "You think his yin energy was...what, removed?"

"Transferred, perhaps," the Hokage allowed. "His recollections are vivid, although I would have been inclined to believe it some sort of hallucination or interaction with the seal without something Naruto mentioned." Here the Sandaime paused, smiling humourlessly. "In his...experiences, the seal first appeared when it absorbed the...shall we say life essence of monsters which feature prominently in his narrative."

"Spit it out," Jiraiya interrupted, sensing a long diversion in the works. The Hokage harrumphed, but acquiesced with a tilt of his head.

"In his dreams," Sarutobi explained, "The people there called this vital force 'souls'." Jiraiya blinked, then stiffened suddenly. "Yes," the Hokage agreed. "What is more, he observed that the seal glowed when he woke up, but it faded quickly. The ANBU in the room with him mentioned that she may have saw something similar."

"May have?" Jiraiya pressed, an expression of irritation appearing.

"Hawk's attention was on guarding the window, not watching Naruto," Sarutobi explained. "She found it worth mentioning afterwards that she may have caught a glimpse, however."

"So you think it was real," Jiraiya remarked, finally discarding the report by dropping in on the desk. "That he goes somewhere where he dreams."

"What is consciousness but a manifestation of spiritual energy?" Sarutobi wondered aloud. "Naruto lacked both during his coma. Material effects were observed when he woke, correlating with his dream. The seal appears to absorb something called 'souls'." The Hokage smiled, but the curve of his lips was utterly humourless. "What conclusion would you draw, Jiraiya?"

The Toad Sage clenched his jaw. "The Shinigami."

"The Shinigami," the Hokage agreed.

~Knight of the Sun~

"I don't see why I have to talk about it," Naruto muttered sullenly, his arms crossed so tightly that his hands were squeezed by his armpits. "It won't change anything." He was sat in one of the more comfortable chairs in the hospital, but it wasn't helping him relax. The man had led him into one of the doctor's offices and shut the door after he'd finished talking to Hokage-jiji. He just felt...tired. Wrung out.

"Maybe not," the blond opposite him allowed, the man's blue eyes compassionate as he regarded the boy across from him. "But talking about it helps how you feel about it. Even if you don't realise it."

Naruto tried to squirm deeper into the seat, pointedly not looking at him. The Yamanaka didn't sigh, but he had to admit he was more used to passive-aggressive evasion than outright petulant defiance from his patients. Then again, he'd never had to do this with a child before. "Why don't you tell me about him," he encouraged. "Why did you call him sensei? You didn't know him very long, did you?"

"I knew him long enough, -ttebayo!" Naruto snapped suddenly, arms whipping out from his chest hugging to fist up on the thin padding of the chair beneath him, the covering groaning ominously under the force. Then he shrank back slightly, cheeks colouring at his loss of control. But he kept staring defiantly, meeting the eyes of the man for the first time.

"I'm sure you did," the man said soothingly. "You must have had a strong bond to call him that so quickly. Why was that?"

Naruto huffed, but his fingers loosened a little and he sat back, crossing his arms again and averting his eyes. "Roland-sensei…" he trailed off, struggling. "He was strong. And he showed me how to do things. And he was…" Naruto's throat closed up suddenly. "He looked out for me," he managed. He met the man's eyes again, daring him to say something.

He didn't expect to see understanding, and the surprise of it drew the tension down out of him so fast it left him feeling weak and breathless. He was horrified to feel his lip start quivering again, and he fisted his hands into the thin hospital robe over his knees, looking down.

"When people we look up to teach us something," the man said slowly, as though he was tasting the words as they came out of his mouth, "they leave a little bit of them inside us." Naruto looked up slowly, surprised to see an almost introspective expression on the other man's face. "That way...they never really go away."

Naruto swallowed, and offered the man a tremulous smile. His head darted down sharply as the man returned it, almost a little sadly, but he lifted his head back up a moment later and took a deep breath when he found the smile still there.

Inside his clenched fist, a spark trailed over the skin of his palm.


	10. Resolute

A/N: Shortie. I don't feel there's much more to be gained from this part of the plot that can't be done _better_ in other ways after the fact.

* * *

"I don't want to," Naruto said sullenly, sitting on the hospital bed with his fingers curled around the edge of the mattress. The Hokage sighed.

"Naruto," he said patiently. "You have been awake for almost two days. You have to sleep." He could understand that the boy did not want to return, knowing what waited for him. But it was more likely that he was afraid of what he would find there. Or not, given the descriptions of his friend's condition. Whether the experience was real or not was immaterial, given the potential effects it would have on Naruto's psyche. The effects it was already having. Sarutobi was inclined to believe him, but belief didn't matter.

"I can't go to sleep with all these people watching me," Naruto complained. "Why do they have to do that?"

Sarutobi didn't reply. But the medic standing by to examine Naruto the second he fell asleep did. "Uzumaki-san," the man said, adjusting his glasses. "If we can examine this...process that you said occurs when you fall asleep, then we may be able to prevent it in future."

Privately, the Hokage doubted that was possible. If Naruto hadn't missed some important detail that showed otherwise, the entire affair was intrinsically related to the seal. That was something neither he or Jiraiya would tamper with unless there was no other alternative, and as callous as it sounded, Naruto's suffering didn't meet the bar. But he said none of this, and simply waited patiently for Naruto to concede.

It took a long while, but Naruto sighed and slouched. The Hokage nodded, laying a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Stay safe, Naruto-kun," he said seriously. "Remember, you will always come home." He removed his hand and nodded to the medic, then retreated from the room. Jiraiya was waiting in the corridor.

"I don't like this," the Toad Sage grouched, not unlike his godson a few moments before. "I've been over the seal. Uzumaki sealing techniques were always esoteric, but I can't believe that something this drastic would be an inference in the formula."

Sarutobi didn't reply, making a low contemplative noise as he walked along the corridor, ANBU silently clearing the way ahead of his measured stride. It was possible for very advanced and complex seals to produce effects not explicitly spelled in the formula, by exploiting the interactions between the singular parts of the design. But he was inclined to agree with his student.

"It has to be related to the Shinigami, rather than the seal," Jiraiya continued. "There are too many parallels. It separates Naruto's yin and yang energies. The Shinigami did the same to the Kyuubi. Then this whole souls thing…"

"How little we understand about it," Sarutobi murmured. "I had always been of the opinion that it was a matter of equality, an exchange of equal value. But here it gives Naruto little, but feeds on souls. Perhaps it was foolish to treat it merely as a force to be used rather than something with motivations and desires."

Jiraiya grunted. "Hopefully we'll be able to figure it out. Minato made the seal. He might know more."

"Ironic," the Hokage remarked, lighting his pipe with a snap of his thumb and finger. The one they would have liked to consult much was in the belly of the being that was causing them so much trouble. "We can only hope Naruto can learn more."

"He didn't seem that bright," the sannin mused. "I had a look at his Academy reports. He isn't much like either of his parents."

"I would not judge him based on moments of such inner turmoil," Sarutobi remarked, a faint smile creasing his lips for the first time since they had started talking. "I think he inherited more than meets the eye."

~Knight of the Sun~

* * *

Naruto kicked the bonfire in frustration, scattering a few of the delicate bones that made up its small pile across the floor of the cave. Roland was gone. He could still see the faint patterns and imprints in the loose dirt that had been tracked into the cave over the years. That was where Roland had been sitting - he could see the little ridge where the knight's heel had been and pushed up some of the powdery ash around the bonfire.

But the small traces didn't hurt as much as the sword discarded on the floor. The belt had simply been removed, leaving the longsword and the sheath just lying there, along with the forlorn strip of leather that had sat around Roland's waist, the edges notched and damaged by wear and tear. Naruto bent down and curved his fingers under the belt, his fingertips catching some of the white ash under his fingernails as he got hold of it. The sword clinked slightly as the cusp of the blade knocked against the metal mouth of the sheath, but a hand steadying the hilt stopped the noise with a suddenness that seemed...uncomfortably abrupt.

It felt like he was holding something that didn't belong to him. Naruto almost gingerly shifted the grip of his hand from the belt to the sheath itself, holding it steady as he pulled at the sword. For a moment it felt like it wasn't going to draw, then the metal came free with a rasp and the first half length of the gleaming steel sword emerged from the crude leather wrapping. It was such a difference in appearance that he suddenly realised that the scabbard didn't belong to the sword.

Naruto swallowed, trying to ignore the stinging of his eyes as he slid the sword back home. Roland-sensei...he was gone. The boy fumbled with the crude knot of his 'belt', the sword that he'd bought from Majula falling to the floor. In the few moments, the stronger and broader leather of the new belt wrapped around his waist, the tip of the scabbard brushing the ground. He put a steadying hand on the hilt, pushing it forward enough to clear the ground.

For the first time, Naruto wasn't sure if he should try to find Roland. The knight had left his medallion, his sword...and then just vanished. He didn't want to be found. Didn't want him to see the transformation from man to monster.

"You haven't given up, Roland-sensei," Naruto swore. "I don't believe you. I'm going to find you." The boy swallowed suddenly. "If I can't…" His hand tightened on the hilt of the sword, and he drew it clumsily. It had a different weight than the one he had been using, a different balance. It felt heavier towards the tip, too. Taking the bottom of the hilt in his other hand, Naruto relaxed as he felt the strain towards the tip vanish, his hands steadying. Suddenly, the sword felt like it was floating in his grip, rather than trying to fall away. "If I can't, then I'm going to take this all the way to the end." He bared his teeth, but there was no happiness in that grin. "That's a promise!"


	11. Changes

"Hyah!" There was a flash of silvered steel, the blade of the longsword carving a rent through the long rusted armor of the hollow. The former knight recoiled, the katana it carried haphazardly tilting in its grip, and in a heartbeat an orange-blur struck it in the chest. The hollow was already disintegrating as Naruto's weight bore it to the ground, the length of Roland's sword stabbed right through it just under the chestplate. Then he was left squatting on top of crumbling armor, a blur of white-blue light darting from where the hollow had vanished to sink into his belly. He panted softly, the no-holds-barred charge leaving him breathless. He'd done better in the Academy taijutsu, and often, and he knew now more than ever how much chakra helped every day. Sometimes he could feel it tingling through his body.

Didn't help him make a decent bunshin, though. He pulled the sword up from the hole he'd punched in the now abandoned armor, spinning around and sketching an arc through the air that caught the descending katana with the flat of the blade and parried it to the right. The hollow's sword whistled down past his shoulder, and the moment it had passed the point of no return the longsword disengaged with a loud ring and came down just behind the flared guard of the Alonne Knight's left gauntlet.

It bit home, the sheer force of the strike forcing the knight's hand away from it's katana, leaving it holding the sword onehanded. Almost all hollows overcommitted, but this one was faster than usual, already withdrawing the katana from the missed strike. It was compensating. It wasn't enough. Naruto wasn't the strongest, but he was fast. He spun his entire body around, recruiting every single muscle in his undersized body into a swing right into the waist of the hollow, matching his weapon against the thick iron plate it wore.

The thick iron plate that did nothing when the razor edge of Naruto's sword sliced through the thin and tattered leather straps attaching the bands of rusted iron just below the chest to the nearly impregnable breastplate above. While the first half of the slice merely cut away the protection there, leaving the flexible banding tilting dangerously free, the second bit into the leather jerkin beneath it.

Naruto didn't even withdraw the tip of the sword from where it had cleaved through the leather and into the underlying body of the hollow, still pulling almost effortlessly in a shallow arc through leather and flesh. He just continued to twist his body until the tip of the sword was pointing inwards and at a right angle to his own body. Then he thrust. The entire body of the hollow slackened, already disintegrating by the time he'd pulled the sword free. While the hollow fell to its knees and began to tilt forward, only empty armor clattered to the dark stone of the Iron Keep's floor.

Naruto let out a short, harsh breath, adrenaline thrumming through him, like an electric buzz that sharpened everything from the feeling of the leather grip of his sword to the slight caress of the hot air against his cheek. How long had that taken? One second? Two? It had nearly surprised him. That was why he felt like this. He didn't usually get the rush anymore. Letting out a longer, calmer breath, he looked around carefully. The main entrance of the Keep had two corridors off it, one forward and one to the right, and though he'd cleared the area of knights that didn't mean none were wandering from deeper within the castle.

Right on cue, there was a clank of armor from the right, the longer passageway leading off into the keep. The lingering adrenaline sharpened his perception, and he could practically chart the armored footsteps coming down a short staircase, a side passage about halfway down its length. Then the source appeared, another of the knights exiting into the right corridor. It stopped at the wall, turning its head left, then right. Naruto noted the way it had a hand on the sheath of its sword, the way it was ready to draw. Like a samurai? He'd have to ask Hayate-sensei. These were the first hollows he'd ever seen using swords he was familiar with from Konoha.

It saw him. The hollow turned with regimental precision, marching towards him at a fast pace, hand poised above the hilt of its katana. Ready to attack the second it was in range. It didn't get in range. Electricity blazed to life in Naruto's free hand, elongating into a spear of crackling light that banished every shadow, cast every contour of the oncoming hollow's armor in sharp relief. Then it lanced out between them and crashed home in a crack of thunder, the hollow simply collapsing mid stride.

"That was impressive," said a voice, and Naruto clenched his still tingling fist. There was a man leaning out into the corridor the hollow had been coming from, although it was more of a slouch across the floor. The man was clearly sitting down, but would have been otherwise concealed by the curve of a wall. "Welcome to the Iron Keep. Magerold of Lanafir, at your service."

Naruto almost laughed with relief. He was close. The soul was here.

And he was going to get it.

~Knight of the Sun~

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke didn't like fighting Uzumaki Naruto. This would not be anything unusual in most cases, given that Uchiha Sasuke was disinclined to like anything, and considered taijutsu spars at the Academy to be a waste of time. Nobody was on his level. What was unusual was that Uchiha Sasuke _disliked_ fighting Uzumaki Naruto.

It had been a subtle thing, starting a few months earlier. Initially Uzumaki had just been more unpredictable, but that only slowed down his defeat. It was like fighting a child. Inconvenient, but a foregone conclusion. Now, though? The clumsy brawling was still there, but it was agile, and it was targeted. He went for the throat, ribs, stomach. One of his hands was always fisted up, and he used it like he was holding a kunai. It wasn't fighting to win. It was fighting to practice and to hurt, regardless of who 'won'. Sasuke knew the difference.

Inuzuka Kiba didn't. He treated Uzumaki's new techniques like it was trying to escape a pummeling, and it made Sasuke grind his teeth. Was he the only one who could see anything? So when Kiba overstretched on a wide sweep that just screamed it was meant to be used when he had claws (though he doubted the boy could use his clan jutsu yet), Sasuke was the only one not surprised when Naruto hit the boy back in the ribs.

The crack was loud, and Iruka was in between them in a heartbeat, stopping the spar. It wasn't hard to hit the side with enough force to drive even a sparring partner with high pain tolerance to the ground. Kiba had fallen to the fetal position, hand hovering protectively over his side. What did the other students see, Sasuke wondered. Lucky strike? That Naruto was unable to control the force of his hits?

It felt like he was the only one who could see how the kunai would have slid between Inuzuka's ribs and into his lung. He took in the scene of Uzumaki being scolded, a grimace on the boy's face. One of embarrassment, not regret. Yes, Uchiha Sasuke disliked fighting Uzumaki Naruto.

But he wanted to.

~Knight of the Sun~

Sarutobi regarded Naruto across the desk in silence, simply observing him. By now, he would have expected fidgeting. Instead, the boy was still. There were traces of his usual behaviour in the aborted twitches of his hands and the hunching of his shoulders, but they were becoming progressively less common. Vanishing beneath the waves of the ordeal that was washing over him. Reshaping him.

"I didn't mean to!" Naruto blurted suddenly, the silence growing too much for him. "It just happened!"

Sarutobi sighed, reaching up to lift his hat and set it aside. "Your sensei says this is the third time in the last month, Naruto. This is the worse." The other injuries had been the sort you'd have expected to see in a spar gone bad, a fall the wrong way, a block half-completed. This, however, was more serious. "Inuzuka Kiba will make a full recovery," the Hokage allowed. "But I don't expect my ninja to put each other in the hospital." It happened, of course, generally between chunin. Experienced enough to do damage, inexperienced enough to not mitigate it. With medical nin, it wasn't a major issue, but he was more concerned with the implications. Looking at Naruto, he came to a decision. "I will inform your sensei you will not be attending the Academy for the next week," he said.

Naruto's mouth dropped open. "W-what?" he gasped. "But the test is in two weeks!"

"I have every confidence in your ability," the Hokage replied, making a private note to order Hayate Gekko to teach Naruto one of the simpler elemental bunshin. "You will continue your kenjutsu lessons with Hayate-san in the meantime, but I want to you spend the rest of the time…" the Hokage paused a moment. "Recuperating."

"Recuperating?" Naruto repeated, nose wrinkling. "What does that mean?"

"Relaxing," Sarutobi clarified. "No more than two hours training a day, lessons with your instructor not included."

Naruto gaped. Only two hours? That left the entire day! He wouldn't have anything to do! He'd have to train inside...

"I will assign ANBU to ensure you do so," the Hokage added, and Naruto groaned loudly. "I'm sure a young boy like yourself can find something to entertain yourself for a week."

"Come on, jiji," Naruto groaned, hands fisting up in his hair. "I'll go crazy!"

"In that case," Sarutobi replied agreeably, his tone utterly level, "I can arrange you to spend the week with Yamanaka Haruki."

Naruto blanched.

"In fact," the Sandaime continued ruthlessly, "I believe I have a request that you schedule another talk with him somewhere…" The man made a show of looking at the paperwork by his elbow, lifting an aged hand to examine the topmost parts of the stack.

"Okay, okay!" Naruto yelled, waving his arms. "I'll relax!"

Sarutobi settled back in his chair, watching Naruto practically flee from the office. The Hokage made a contemplative noise, letting out a low hum of satisfaction as smoke curled from his pipe and up towards the ceiling. Naruto would find some outlet for his energy, given he was banned from training. The complaints of him causing trouble with his mischief making that would inevitably appear were a minor inconvenience to the boy becoming genuinely disturbed, and a sacrifice worth making. In the long term, a careful hand would be needed. Somebody who could manage the problem.

Hatake Kakashi would not appreciate being told that passing his new team in a few weeks would be mandatory. "We all make sacrifices," Sarutobi said aloud, before leaning forward again to get back to the business of running the village. If only all problems could be so easily delegated...


	12. Spark

Naruto poked his head out through the open archway, wincing at the blast of heat. The entire place was uncomfortably warm, especially by the entrance, but the interior of the Keep had actually been tolerably warm instead of skin-pricklingly hot. This was a return to form. It looked like this might have been some kind of open courtyard before the entire castle sank into the lava, and he picked out what looked like some kind of suspended bridge. There were knights as well, of course, and he didn't relish fighting them on the narrower walkways, but that shouldn't be much of a problem.

Stepping out into the orange light of the glowing lava below, the boy squinted at the now visible other end of the suspended bridge. It looked like some sort of tower or chamber, and his eyes slowly wandered over it towards the rear, then picked out what looked like an entrance further into the castle. So he'd go round to the left, lower the bridge somehow, get across to the right side, go into the tower and out a floor up, then out of the area.

Naruto nodded to himself, marking the first knight he was likely to face. It was standing near where the edge of the bridge would be it was lowered, so he'd have to take care of it anyway. Now, where was the lever to slacken the chain and lower the bridge...again, Naruto walked his eyes over the left side, this time. There was a set of stairs down a level, closer to the lava, and by an edge looking back towards the entrance...there. If that wasn't the lever to lower the bridge, he didn't know what was.

Having mentally plotted out how to deal with the area, Naruto stepped out and began to head down the side, approaching the first knight he would have to face. It looked like there was another down the end of the pathway, and it seemed like it might be holding a bow...but he was pretty sure it hadn't noticed him. The same couldn't be said for his predicted first knight, who straightened up suddenly and turned towards him.

Naruto tightened his grip on the sword and let out a low breath, relaxing his muscles. He'd need to move fast to parry this guy, and it was already stepping towards him -

There was a brief feeling of an impact from the side, then nothing.

~Knight of the Sun~

* * *

The first day of his week off from the Academy dawned like any other. He woke up, got dressed, and ate breakfast all on autopilot, mentally reliving the events of the night. He was heading out the door to go to the Academy when it finally dawned that he didn't have to. That he wasn't allowed to. At least there was Hayate-sensei later in the day.

Killing all the time to get to the part of the day when Hayate-sensei was around was a lot harder than it looked. By noon Naruto had already used his allowed two hours, and he knew because the ANBU watching him appeared and told him so. After that he'd slouched around the village, sat on the Yondaime's head, and had some Ichiraku's ramen. So when it was finally time to meet with Hayate-sensei, Naruto was probably the most excited for his lesson he'd ever been.

"What's up with you, Uzumaki?" Hayate asked as he arrived, seeing Naruto practically hopping from foot to foot in anticipation. It was kinda funny, actually. Like the kid really needed to pee. "You have too much sugar or something?"

"Hayate-sensei!" Wow, the kid's eyes lit like that just from him arriving? Hayate stepped back in surprise at the sheer eagerness of the expression.

"Woah, kid," he said, backing off another step as Uzumaki stepped forward another. "This is a no hugging zone." Uzumaki froze, face heating up. Oh please say he wasn't actually going to…

"I wasn't going to hug you!" Uzumaki shouted, waving his arms madly. Hayate winced. The red wasn't from embarrassment, then. "I'm just bored! Jiji won't let me go to the Academy!"

"Ahah," Hayate laughed sheepishly. "Okay, okay. Well, I'm here now."

"Um…" Hayate blinked. Wow, this kid ran hot and cold. Now he was being shy? "Do you think we could have a longer lesson today?"

"Oh, well…" Hayate coughed awkwardly, patting his chest. "Ah…" Then he saw Naruto's eyes, and his expression firmed a little. "I guess," he allowed. He kind of liked the idea of the kid wanting to learn more. Kenjutsu was an art, after all. If nothing else, Uzumaki could be relied on to be an enthusiastic student. "I guess it's only fair," he continued. "I've got a mission tomorrow, so I won't be able to teach. Don't know when I'll be back." Seeing the beginnings of a crestfallen expression, he hurried on. "So let's do a lot today, okay?"

"Right!" Uzumaki beamed. Heh. Good kid. Not the sharpest kunai in the pack, but good.

~Knight of the Sun~

* * *

Naruto shot one last dirty look at the raised platform that had been hidden from sight behind a corner when he had first entered the area, cursing the greatbow armed knight which had made itself the bane of his efforts to cross the bridge. He didn't know what these hollows had been, but 'human' wasn't one of them. He doubted even ninja could fire arrows that size. The huge lance-like things simply punched clear through him, crushing and piercing through his body. Worse, the ones with the bows were even better with the sword than the regular knights.

That had been an unpleasant discovery. Fortunately the clear exit and entrance to the area seemed to have largely prevented any other hollow knights from repopulating it from side passages or the like, so once he killed them that was it. Still, getting to the tower had been a pain and a half, and the blond-haired boy was in a foul mood by the time tramped into the entrance.

Then he stopped, and froze. There was a giant statue in the middle of it. Except this statue didn't look like any statue he had ever seen, it was made of metal, and he could swear the interior was hollow and _parts of it were floating_. Taking a cautious step back to put distance between him and it, he bit his lip in worry when a flame flickered from within the armor and roared to life. The entire interior of the tower was suddenly cast in a hellish red-orange light, the 'statue' hefting a huge sword that was probably three times as long as Naruto was high.

Then it stepped towards him, and things degenerated from there.

~Knight of the Sun~

* * *

Naruto huffed, toying with his ramen in one hand and his cheek firmly jammed into the palm of his other. Usually he would wolf down a bowl, especially in Ichiraku's, but the sheer boredom had sapped the energy from him like a leech. He let out a long sigh. He hoped Hayate-sensei was back tomorrow…

"Hey, Naruto-kun." Naruto looked up at the kindly smile of Ichiraku Teuchi. "You seem a bit down. You okay?"

"Eh…" Naruto trailed off for a moment, about to shrug it off. Then he sighed again. "Jiji says I'm not allowed in the Academy. Hayate-sensei isn't here today and...I'm really bored."

"Oh?" Teuchi asked, sliding into the seat next to him. "How come?"

Naruto groaned. "Hayate-sensei has a mission, and I don't have anything to do."

Teuchi laughed a little, rubbing the side of his nose. "Not quite what I meant, but I won't push. I would have thought a kid like you would love having some free time."

"To do what?" Naruto cried, throwing up his arms. "There's nothing to do!"

"What about a hobby?" Teuchi asked. "Reading, writing, painting…"

"Painting?" Naruto repeated slowly, and Teuchi could almost see the cogs turning. "I guess I could…"

"There you go," the ramen chef said with a wide smile. "Try to enjoy some free time, Naruto-kun. Take it from an old man, you don't miss it until it's gone!" He rose from his seat, pressing at the small of his back. "Ah well, back to work. Enjoy yourself!"

Naruto slowly began to smile.

~Knight of the Sun~

* * *

Naruto gave the tower a truly foul expression as he climbed the ladder. He'd tried to kill that fire monster over and over again. He'd lost a whole day. But it didn't seem to feel pain, and even throwing Roland-sensei's lightning bolts at it didn't seem to faze it. So when he had figured out the massive squat furnace in the center of the 'courtyard' had a valve to turn it off and a ladder that bypassed the tower entirely, he took it. Normally, he wouldn't have given up. But he was so close to that soul Roland-sensei had been trying so hard to get. He didn't think the fire monster was it.

So when he killed some weird turtle-looking things on a slim walkway over lava from a distance with lightning, he felt reasonably confident that nothing was as bad as that fire monster up ahead. Then he poked his head through the archway at the other end of the walkway, and jerked back as a colossal arrow-lance embedded itself in the masonry.

This place sucked.

~Knight of the Sun~

* * *

The dawn of a new day. Another day of not being able to go to the Academy. Another day of boredom. Naruto sighed, scratching at the back of his head. What was he meant to do? Well, at least Hokage-jiji said he was still allowed to train with Hayate-sensei, and a little on his own. Maybe he could get Hayate to extend his lessons? Yesterday had made him realise how much he missed them. They were cool, and really helped with beating those knights, too. He know didn't if Hayate-sensei was back from his mission yet though...

With that in mind, he wandered off down to the mission assignment office. While the Hokage did give out some missions, the majority of the busywork of the village was conducted on the lower floors of the tower, missions and pay handed out in equal measure to the incoming shinobi. More importantly, they also kept track of the duty status of shinobi. It was rather more common than appreciated for chunin and jonin who were technically still on mandated leave from the hospital to try and take another mission.

It was a testament to the sheer bustle of the wide room that Naruto actually went largely unnoticed, despite his virulent orange clothing. So when his shock of blonde hair and wide grin appeared above the lip of one of the desks, it was an unwelcome surprise for the woman manning the station. "Ohayo, nee-chan," Naruto beamed. "Is Hayate Gekko-san back from his mission?"

She eyed him for a long moment, an expression on her face as if she was trying to decide which of the myriad reasons she disliked him was most offensive to her. Finally, she grunted. "Classified," she said, stamping the paper she was on with a rather final bang. "Can't tell you. Don't want to. Scram, brat. Don't come back until you have a headband."

Naruto's smile dimmed slightly. "But he's my sensei…" he wheedled. "You can tell me, right?"

"No."

He wasn't going to get anywhere here. Sighing, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and wandered back out. So much for that. As he exited out of the tower proper and into the sunlight, he sighed again and tilted his head back. In a way, it was the hustle and bustle of Konoha that made him feel safe. Drangleic was deathly quiet. He could count the people who had spoken to him on one hand. Green lady, Roland-sensei, creepy talking cat, creepy hag merchant lady, and Magerold.

But that didn't mean he reacted well to sudden noises.

"Yo." The sudden hello from a space that Naruto had been sure was empty had him instinctively lashing out with the hand that would usually have held his sword. What he didn't expect was the crouched person to lean back slightly and let his closed fist pass a hairsbreadth from their nose, then to whip out their other hand.

The cover of the book they were holding whacked him in the face as it was opened, and Naruto yelped in shock as he tried to wheel his arms to keep his balance. But gravity and momentum won out, and he let out a pained grunt as his tailbone hit the ground. But a second later he was on his feet with an accusing finger pointed squarely at the person who had knocked him to the ground. "Hey!" he shouted angrily. "What's the matter with you?"

The man's only visible eye crinkled a little in the impression of an amused smile, but despite the seeming friendliness Naruto was still on edge, ready to fight in a heartbeat. "I heard what you said in there. How did you manage to get a sensei before you even graduated?"

"How do you know I didn't graduate?" Naruto asked suspiciously, tensing. The man flicked an eye to his bare forehead with a rather unimpressed expression. Any thoughts as to how he was able to tell what the man was feeling with only a quarter of his face visible were banished as Naruto's own face heated with embarrassment. He didn't have a headband. Obviously. "Hayate-sensei teaches me kenjutsu," Naruto defended. "He's not my full time sensei." That was Iruka-sensei, and of the two people who Naruto instinctively considered 'sensei', only one of them was in Konoha.

"Ah," the man said, straightening up from his crouch. "Okay then." With that, he turned away and began walking off. Naruto gaped after him at the rudeness.

"What was that?" he demanded loudly, waving his arms. "That was all you were going to ask? You hit me!"

"Yeah, that's it," the man replied, not even looking up from his book. "Bye."

Naruto huffed. Sometimes he felt like Konoha was full of jerks. Well, he guessed he could go back to his original plan.

~Knight of the Sun~

* * *

"I am _done_ with this place, dattebayo!" Naruto shouted, bowling over the turtle-armored hollow carrying the giant mace in a leap that sent it tumbling back down the stairs. He was on the exposed enemy in a heartbeat, sword stabbing at the joints in the iron armor it wore and cutting deep into decayed and mummified flesh beneath. Panting harshly, the boy looked up and out of the exit of the small passageway.

Then his expression fell. There wasn't some sort of grand center to the castle. It was a crumbling...was that a house? Whatever it had been, all that was left were a few crumbling walls and cobblestone paving that was mere inches above the lava. It was barely the size of his apartment, and he was talking about his rooms, not the building! The small sea-worth of lava stretched around it mockingly, and Naruto groaned.

It wasn't going to be fun that close to the glowing hot rock, and hard to breathe besides. But he didn't have a choice if he was going to investigate every inch of the castle for the great soul. He was beginning to get the sinking feeling that the fire monster had been it, and he didn't like the idea of having to try and kill that again. As he descended down to the remains of whatever building it was, the heat became increasingly oppressive.

He started half-running through, trying to stay as little as possible. Ducking through the archway in the ruins, he gave it a quick look around. There was nothing. Just bare cobblestone and lava. He was about to turn back the way he came when a low rumble vibrated up through his feet, one of the cobblestones on the edge dislodging from whatever mortar had been keeping it attached to the rest of the floor and dropping into the lava.

Naruto watched as the lava bulged upwards out towards the center of the lake, then a winged and horned form erupted up from beneath it. The monster was huge, standing waist-deep in the lava, and it turned towards him with a roar. Naruto felt his heart leap into his throat at the impending threat, his hand crackling with lightning as he threw a bolt at the approaching demon. The miracle crossed the distance in a short few seconds, exploding in a flash of light on the beast's shoulder. It roared dangerously, rearing back a threatening hand. It was too far away to grab him, and would be for at least a few more seconds.

But there wasn't any doubt. This was the hollow with the great soul. If this was a hollow. Naruto coughed and drew his sword, wincing at how hot the leather grip was. He could feel his skin beginning to burn near his ankles, too, even through the fabric covering them. But he could do this. That thing was huge, but it couldn't move too fast through molten rock. He'd just have to keep it out of grabbing distance -

Then a ray of fire as thick as his arm stabbed through his chest.

~Knight of the Sun~

* * *

"NARUTO!" The shout felt like it shook his bones, and Naruto yelped as the paintbrush he was using slipped and slapped bright yellow across his leg. Slowly, and with no small amount of dread, he looked up. Iruka-sensei was standing there with hands on hips and leaning over the edge of the cliff, his feet right by the start of Naruto's rope harness. The boy smiled weakly.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei," he said nervously. "W-what are you doing up here?"

"Did you think I wouldn't notice, Naruto!" his teacher shouted, and the boy in question winced. Iruka-sensei could really turn up the volume when he wanted to. "Defacing the Hokage Monument! What were you thinking?"

Naruto laughed, kicking back in the harness a little to get a wider view of his work. He'd only got as far as the Nidaime's face, but...Naruto sighed. It wasn't fun like he thought it would be. The pranks used to be fun, exciting. Got him running and laughing. But this was just…

Boring.

~Knight of the Sun~

* * *

Every inch of him hurt. It had taken several attempts, but the monster he'd come to kill was screaming in its death throes, angry red-white wounds from where his lightning spears had struck it dimming even as he watched. He wasn't much better, though. The lava the monster had kicked up with its movements had clipped his clothes, setting them on fire. His sword had been too hot to hold, let alone use. But the former king of the Iron Keep was slow and ponderous, and unable to avoid his lightning. His enemy let out one final growl, then its upper body fell forward onto the cobblestones and went still. The energy went out of Naruto's body in a great whoosh that left him stumbling back.

He fell nervelessly against the edge of the crumbled wall by the quietly burbling lava, his hands blindly seeking what he knew was coming. Fingers scrabbled at empty air, catching the thick and heavy mist of the soul as it rushed down to his belly. It puddled in his hands, trying to squeeze through towards the seal, but he clenched down tighter and wouldn't let it. There was something in there, a burning heart in a cold rush, and he refused to let go. Cracked and weeping flesh covered his body, the burnt scraps of immolated clothing glued by heat to the remnants of what was once his skin. The soul pressed against his palms, the instinctive shifts of his grip sending waves of agonising pain through him. It couldn't have it. This one was his. This one was Roland-sensei's._ It couldn't have it_.

He had to keep it. This was everything. Naruto bent his mind towards holding onto it, the scraps of conscious thought through the pain a mental vice around the titanic power of the soul in his hands. Then it suddenly cascaded through his fingers like water, his grip failing. The boy desperately tightened his hands, wailing in pain at the movement as his prize drained away into the seal like water down a plughole.

All that was left in his hands was a spark of life, a flickering candle of light. It caressed his palms, insubstantial wisps of orange glow drifting over dead and ravaged flesh. But the soul was gone. The soulcatcher had taken it. Naruto laughed, lips cracking open, pain mixing with pain. He'd failed. His hands tightened, fresh agony wracking his body as he crushed the ember in his palm. He didn't feel the light sink through his burned skin, didn't feel the tingle in his heart and bone. How could he, when all his body screamed in pain? It blotted out everything else.

Uzumaki Naruto felt his failure, the confrontation of his impotence, and slowly fell to the left. The still and slowly disintegrating corpse of the Iron King bore silent witness as the victor in their struggle tilted over the edge of the floor and into the lava.


	13. Conflict

Naruto sat down on the edge of the sun-dappled rock, pulling up the soiled edge of his looted 'shirt' over his shoulder. He was still too small to properly wear it, and it required constant adjustment, but it was better than nothing. Then the boy sighed lowly and leaned back, shoulders meeting the altar and head hanging even further back onto the sunlit top. The remains of the broken statue loomed above it, and he closed his eyes.

"Sorry, Roland-sensei," he said quietly. "I couldn't do it." His lips quirked in a bitter smile, an almost hysterical giggle escaping. "I tried," he laughed, hands fisting up in his hair and pushing the back of his skull even harder against the flat top of the altar. "I tried and I won and it _didn't matter._"

The broken statue made no reply, the only noise in the largely deserted valley a faint whistle of wind. Naruto sighed, flopping his arms back down. "I couldn't hold onto it," he said quietly. "I tried cutting the soul catcher open to get it back, but it didn't work." His left hand slipped up to press against his belly. "I got something else, but I don't think it was what I had to."

The sunlight grew uncomfortably warm on his face as he lay there in silence for a while, his thoughts recalling the low tingle inside him. "The catcher can't seem to get it now I caught it, though," he said eventually, leaning forward and off the altar, cupping his hands to allow the tingle to prickle on his palms and bloom into a solitary flicker of flame.

Looking down into that candle of fire between his hands, he suddenly swallowed convulsively and snuffed it out by clapping his palms together. "It isn't like the others," he whispered, more to himself than to an imagined companion. Roland-sensei had said that souls were just little flickers of life that made people people. But they weren't people. Wood wasn't fire, even though you could burn it. Naruto had understood that.

Then why did this one feel like it was a person, once?

~Knight of the Sun~

* * *

Sarutobi Hiruzen regarded the reporting ANBU silently, the masked operative remaining on one knee while the Hokage absorbed the news. "Lightning jutsu, you say?" he repeated, scouring his mind for any jutsu that met the description. His hand was already closing around the transparent sphere that would allow him to see what Naruto was doing. Lightning the shape and size of something like a staff, then thrown like a fishing spear? That sounded more akin to lightning natured shape manipulation than a ninjutsu technique.

There was a great crack of thunder from outside, and the Hokage paused a moment to look out the window. Not a cloud in the sky. He replaced the seeing-eye ball back in his drawer, sliding it shut. This was something worth looking into himself.

He found Naruto sitting atop the Yondaime's head. Not for the first time, he wondered if Naruto's feelings of hero worship would change if he knew the identity of his father, and the burden he carried. The Hokage had intended to tell him about the Kyuubi once he was mature enough, but…

He left that that thought unfinished. "Practicing new jutsu, Naruto-kun?" he asked, stepping up besides the boy. Konoha from this vantage point was beautiful, stretching out and away from the monument.

"Yeah," Naruto whispered, and Sarutobi glanced down at the unusual lack of enthusiasm. He had hoped that the break would let him relax during the day, regardless of what might happen during the night. When he had seen the vandalism to the monument, he had hoped that meant it was working. Although the paint was soon gone, the renewal of some of Naruto's previous habits was heartening.

This was not the boy he had hoped was returning. "Would you show me the jutsu, Naruto-kun?" he asked, interested in seeing it at work. The jutsu alone practically confirmed his belief that what Naruto experienced was more than a hallucination, and he was glad the boy was getting something useful out of an otherwise negative experience.

"Hey, jiji?" Naruto asked suddenly. "I need a sword."

Sarutobi frowned a little at the deflection. "If Hayate-san feels you are ready when you graduate," he allowed. Shinobi were harsh on their weapons, and a civilian or even samurai-grade weapon was often insufficient. Still, he had no objection to providing the money and letting Naruto pay it off with his missions. He opened his mouth to ask to see the jutsu again, but Naruto was shaking his head.

"No I need…" he paused a moment, visibly struggling. "I need to _make_ one."

The Hokage regarded the boy for a few long moments. "I think you should tell me what is going on, Naruto-kun," he said, rather sternly. "What is it?"

Naruto sighed lowly, and flame blossomed between his hands.

~Knight of the Sun~

Uzumaki wasn't allowed to spar anymore: Naruto had complained when he'd found out, but apparently Iruka didn't want him hurting any of the other students. Sasuke had only heard the whispered assurance that he'd pass on the taijutsu portion of the upcoming tests because he was sitting nearby, and it only rekindled the desire to spar with the other student. Before graduation, and before they were separated out into teams. Uzumaki fought like it was _real_.

So when the Academy finally ended, Sasuke did something he had never done before. He followed another student. He needed to fight him, needed to know that he could beat somebody who fought like they were trying to kill him. He needed to prove his taijutsu against an opponent who wouldn't hold back. That Uzumaki wasn't even using the standard styles taught at the Academy just made it even more important.

He'd hoped that Naruto would just go straight home, and he'd be able to intercept the boy before he entered his apartment. He'd never seen Naruto turn down a challenge, and hadn't even considered the possibility that his 'rival' in taijutsu might refuse. But Naruto wasn't heading deeper into Konoha. At first Sasuke had thought it was because he lived on the outskirts, but it was becoming more and more clear that he was going to one of the training grounds instead.

He was tempted to reveal himself right then and issue his challenge, but curiosity held him back. He had thought that Uzumaki was going home, but now he seemed to be going to a training ground. What if that was wrong, too? Did the boy have some secret? So he followed, and he wasn't surprised when Naruto didn't spot him. He was the number one student for a reason. He excelled. In _everything_. He had to.

When he saw the jonin apparently waiting, a surge of almost betrayed disappointment filled him. He was getting better because he was being trained, and the man tossed Naruto a wooden training sword as the boy approached. They began to exchange greetings, and Sasuke turned away to leave. "Going to introduce me to your stalker, Naruto-kun?" The jonin's words crossed the intervening distance, and Sasuke froze.

"Eh?" Uzumaki sounded confused. Sasuke turned around. Naruto looked back behind him, and pointed a finger as he spotted him. "Hey, you were following me! What's wrong with you?"

"This is why your taijutsu is better?" Sasuke demanded accusingly, and Uzumaki drew back in surprise. "And you'd have seen me if you looked behind you, _dobe_."

"Hey, I haven't been last for months!" Naruto shouted, stepping forward with fists clenched. "Hayate-sensei trains my kenjutsu, not taijutsu!" Naruto slashed his palm across. "That was all me!"

Sasuke felt a surge of...relief?...mixed with a sort of vicious excitement. "Prove it," he growled, voice practically vibrating. "Fight me." He took a step forward towards Naruto who blinked and laughed sheepishly.

"Eheh…" he chuckled nervously, rubbing at the back of his head. "Iruka-sensei says I'm not allowed to spar anymore…"

"This isn't the Academy," Sasuke spat, not letting it go. He needed this fight. He needed to fight with somebody who treated it like a battle rather than some schoolground tussle. "Show me a real fight." Naruto continued to look unsure, and he dug in the barb. "Unless you really are dead last."

"Might as well do it, kid," Hayate said unexpectedly, shrugging and with his hands stuffed in his pockets. "I'll make sure you don't kill each other. 'sides, it'll be good practice. If you're that good at taijutsu the Academy teaches crap anyway." He paused a moment. "Don't tell your sensei I said that." He gave Sasuke a blank look, and the Uchiha got the impression that he was being examined. "Don't think this is going to go away."

Sasuke tensed his jaw. He'd have rather fought without somebody to rush in when it got 'serious', but the jonin seemed a lot more laid back about it than Iruka was. Maybe he could actually test himself. He silently stared down Uzumaki, fists clenched. The blonde looked uncertain, expression almost wary. Then the other boy let go of the wooden sword and let it drop into the grass, closing his eyes for a long moment.

When he opened them, there was nothing but determination there. There was no formality, no bow and no seal. Uzumaki lifted his fists ready to attack at the slightest opportunity, and began the slow and cautious approach that Sasuke had seen him start to use at the Academy. But this time he was moving much more quickly than he had in the spars. Within only a few seconds, Sasuke was forced to begin circling in the opposite direction to maintain a solid defence, and suddenly realised that this was the whole point of the oddly reactive taijutsu that Naruto had been using. Responding to Uzumaki by letting him decide how they closed into attack was stupid.

So he tensed suddenly and closed the distance between them in a single jump, fist raised to bring the whole momentum of his body into a punch that would knock out his opponent in one blow. Sasuke barely had time to compensate when Uzumaki didn't dodge, the expected instinctive jump away that any of the other students would have made failing to appear. Instead, Uzumaki spun his body sideways and forward, leaving him within easy striking distance of Sasuke's back and side when he landed.

There was a punch aimed for his ribs already flying the second his feet touched the ground, and Sasuke reacted automatically. His right elbow pushed back, Uzumaki's knuckles hitting then slipping off the back of his upper arm. In a heartbeat, Sasuke pulled up his arm to follow, an open palm moving to push his opponents over-extended punch out to the side, and open up the torso for retaliation.

By the time the side of his hand was curving into Naruto's overextended arm, the second punch was already halfway towards his face. Before he even knew it, his body was turning on the spot and his other hand slapping at the blonde-haired boy's forearm, knocking the punch off course and to the side. He barely caught the flash of movement at the bottom of his vision, foot slipping backwards. The forward kick passed harmlessly through the air where it would have hit his knee, and both of the vulnerable fighters sprang back from each other.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, adrenaline pulsing through his body like a second heartbeat. He'd come off better at the end of that exchange, but it didn't mean anything if he couldn't capitalise on it. He subtly moved his shoulder and tensed his arm check that the growing bruise where he had deflected Naruto's strike away from his ribs hadn't impaired his movement. Despite their close distance Uzumaki had resumed his circling, even though they were very nearly close enough to touch. Again, Sasuke was forced to do the same.

Uzumaki's weakness was his overextension. Even though he was faster and more agile than before, he still went for doing direct damage. There was barely any effort to set up the opponent for the finishing strike. If he could draw the other boy in and use that, he could win. The problem was that both of them hit hard. Whoever landed the first solid hit in a good position was going to be able to use that to hit again and again.

Sasuke smirked as he minutely closed the distance. This was the best challenge he'd had so far, but knew he was going to win. All he had to do was be close enough to bait, then exploit. Within moments of closing into range, Uzumaki exploded into motion. The punch was predictable enough that Sasuke was able to just slip out of the way, and the second attack was easy to anticipate.

As Uzumaki's second punch tried to hit him in the chest, his right arm came up in a sweeping block, forearm meeting forearm. This was the difference. Uzumaki reacted. He adapted. Rather than blocking and striking, Sasuke pulled his hand down the block to take hold of Uzumaki's wrist, using the momentum of the punch to pull Naruto off balance and rotate the wrist freely.

It was over. "Yield," Sasuke said, the triumph of his mind and skill filling him with a sense of satisfaction. He held the hand and arm in a lock that meant Naruto trying to turn and attack him would break his own wrist. Uzumaki fell to one knee, other hand palm down on the grass to hold himself up.

There was a sudden impact with his knee, and Sasuke's vision went grey as a wet snapping noise went right through his body. He was tilting and falling, but instead of letting go his grip only tightened, other leg suddenly supporting his weight. He felt the torsion of the bones in Naruto's forearm as the boy turned around, lunging up from his crouch. There was a loud crack as the resistance against his hold vanished, and Sasuke went reeling as the punch took him across the jaw.

Everything went black.

Hayate gaped as Naruto fell to one knee, arm hanging limply at his side. "I'm in so much trouble," the swordsman groaned, hiding his eyes behind his hand. "Why didn't you give up, idiot!"

"I don't give up," Naruto growled through gritted teeth, and Hayate pulled his hand down his face, eyeing the boy. There wasn't a trace of red, despite the almost feral sound of the boy's voice. "Never."

He looked up, and Hayate almost stepped back at the intensity of it. Naruto grinned. "That's a promise."


End file.
